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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC
3 1833 01067 8222
JOSEPH BRA XT TH AY END AN EG E A
( His age, thirty-four. )
(From a mezzotint of 1779, now m the Lenox Library, after a portrait by
Romney, painted in London, in 1776.
thej3li lnew york
"frontier
ITS WARS WITH INDIANS AND TORIES, ITS
MISSIONARY SCHOOLS, PIONEERS
AND LAND TITLES
1614-1800
BY
FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1901
Copyright, 1901, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
s
M THESE
-y£ ANNALS OF MY BIRTHLAND
ARE INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF
VIRGINIA ISABEL FORBES
MY CONSTANT COMPANION IN THEIR PREPARATION
THROUGH MANY YEARS:
WHOSE HAND WROTE AND REWROTE
MORE THAN HALF THESE PAGES.
'BUT THY ETERNAL SUMMER SHALL NOT FADE.'
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
Why this History 3
PART I
INDIANS AND FUR TRADERS
I. The Iroquois and the Susquehanna .... II
II. Indian Villages in the Upper Valley . . 21
III. The Coming of White Men (1614-1740) . 32
PART II
MISSIONARIES AND THE FRENCH WAR
1650-1769
I. Jesuits and Church of England Men ... 43
II. Missionaries from New England 52
III. Gideon Hawley's Coming 56
IV. War Interrupts Mr. Hawley's Work ... 63
V. New Men at Oghwaga 69
VI. Pontiac's War and After It 73
VII. Last of the Indian Missions 80
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART III
LAND TITLES AND PIONEERS
1679-1774
PAGE
I. William Penn and Sir William Johnson . . 87
II. The Fort Stanwix Deed, and Patents that
Followed It 99
III. The Patent Called Wallace's 106
IV. The First Settlers 116
V. Journal of a Tour in 1769 138
PART IV
THE BORDER WARS BEGUN
1776-1777
I. Causes that Led to the Wars 147
II. Why Brant Came to the Susquehanna . . .157
III. Brant's Arrival in Unadilla 168
IV. General Herkimer's Conference with Brant . 176
V. The Battle of Oriskany 185
PART V
OVERTHROW OF THE FRONTIER
1777-1778
I. Alarm Among the Settlements 201
II. Cobleskill, Springfield, and Wyoming . . .207
TABLE OF CONTENTS
III. German Flatts Destroyed 223
IV. The Burning of Unadilla and Oghwaga . . 229
V. The Cherry Valley Massacre 238
PART VI
THE SULLIVAN EXPEDITION
J 779
I. General Clinton at Otsego Lake .... 255
II. Brant's Return and the Battle of Minisink . . 263
III. General Clinton's Descent of the Susquehanna 271
IV. Iroquois Civilization Overturned 278
PART VII
LAST YEARS OF THE WAR
1780-1783
I. Schoharie and the Mohawk Laid Waste . .287
II. Sir John and Brant Return 295
III. Colonel Willett Expels the Invaders . . .301
IV. Final War Scenes 308
V. The Iroquois After the War 317
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART VIII
THE RESTORATION OF THE FRONTIER
1782-1800
PAGE
I. Return of the Former Settlers 331
II. Men Who Came from New England . . 337
III. Pioneers by Way of Wattles's Ferry . . . 347
IV. William Cooper, of Cooperstown . . . -357
V. Jacob Morris and Talleyrand's Visit . . . 365
VI. Churches — Father Nash and Others Founded 373
VII. A Great Highway 379
VIII. Economic Facts in Pioneer Life .... 392
Bibliography, etc. :
Material in Print 403
Manuscripts 4 IG
A Few of the Many 411
A Personal Note 4*3
Index \ l S
Illustrations
Portrait of Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea,
Frontispiece
From a large and rare mezzotint of I77Q, in the Lenox Li-
brary, made from a portrait painted in London by Romney,
in 1776.
FACING
PAGE
An Iroquois Fort, 12
Believed to have stood on the shore of Onondaga Lake and be-
sieged by Champlain in /6/j. From Vol. LIL. of " The
Documentary History of the State of New York.'''' The orig-
inal in Champlain's " Voyages." Fans, ibig.
Council Rock, Otsego Lake, .... 22
An ancient Lndian rendezvous. From a recent photograph.
Portrait of Sir William Johnson, ... 40
From a copy in the State Library, at Albany, of an original,
formerly owned by Sir John Johnson, Sir William's son.
Looking up the Unadilla at its confluence
with the Susquehanna, 102
Being part of the Fort Stanwix Treaty line of 1768. From a
recent photograph.
Four Eminent New York Indians, . . .158
Sa Ga Yean Qua Resh Tow, King of the Mohawks, in
1710, alias King Brant, Joseph's grandfather. From a
rare mezzotint of the period in the Lenox Library.
Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row. Fmperor of the Six Nations,
in 1710. From a rare mezzotint in the Lenox Library.
E. Tow O Koam, King of the River Lndians, in 1710.
From a rare mezzotint in the Lenox Library.
Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, his age 6j. From a por-
trait painted in Albany by Ezra Ames in jSoj.
XI
ILLUSTRATIONS
Fort Oswego, 1 86
The principal rendezvous of Indians, Tories and British
regulars in the Revolution. From a large print in Vol. I of
" The Documentary History of the State of New York."
The original in Smith's "History of New York." Quarto.
London, i-]by.
Monument on the Hillside, Overlooking
the Ravine at Oriskany, 196
From a recent photograph.
Monument at Cherry Valley to those who
Perished in the Massacre, . . . .238
On the site of the Revolutionary Fort. From a recent photo-
graph.
General James Clinton, 272
From a portrait in " The Journals of the Sullivan Expedi-
tion."
Colonel Marinus Willett, 302
From the frontispiece to " A A T arrative of the Military Ac-
tions of Colonel Marinus Willett."
The Susquehanna at Unadilla Village, . . 348
Site of Wattles 's Ferry in the middle distance. From a re-
cent photograph .
Portrait of J. Fenimore Cooper, . . .358
From an Engraving by J. B. Forrest of a miniature by
H. Chilton.
Otsego Hall, Cooperstown, . . . -362
The hofne of]. Fenimore Cooper. Built by Cooper's father
in 1 7 '97 '-99. Improved by Cooper in 1824. Destroyed by fire
in /8jj. The grounds now a village park. From an old
print.
The Seal of the Dongan Charter, .
Stamped on the Cover
See foot-note, page g2.
xii
Maps
The Frontier of New York, in the Revolu-
tion,
Compiled by the author.
Early Land Titles on the Frontier with
dates and owners' names, . . End of Volume
Reduced from a map compiled about i 7 no by Simeon
DeWitt and printed in Volume I of "The Documentary
History of the State of New York:''
K IN THE REVOLUTION
S inserted. )
author.)
INTRODUCTION
Why this History
Why this History
REASONS for writing this history may in
some numbers be cited. About one hun-
dred and sixty years before the Revolution
— earlier, in fact, than the landing of the Pilgrims —
these lands had been visited by white men. Traders
had travelled along the Indian trails of the Mohawk
and Susquehanna valleys periodically all through
that century and a half, while for at least a quarter
of a century before the Revolution, missionaries had
engaged in constant labor on the Susquehanna. By
the missionaries, schools and churches were founded,
and a beneficent and fruitful work was well under
way when the war put a sudden end to peaceful
activities. The lands on the Susquehanna for a con-
siderable time were the frontier of the province of
New York, the Unadilla River, one of the tributa-
ries of the larger stream, forming another part of that
boundary line between the Indians and the English,
which was established by the treaty of Fort Stanwix
in 1768. Beyond this line no settlements were
made until after the war, when the white man
secured his first titles in that fertile region of Cen-
tral and Western New York.
During the Revolution the upper Susquehanna
became a base of operations from which the Indians
and Tories, who had fled from the Mohawk and
Schoharie valleys, found their way back into the
settled parts of New York, and under Joseph
Brant, Colonel John Butler, Walter H. Butler, and
Sir John Johnson wrought their destruction. After
peace returned, the history of these Susquehanna
3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
lands is the history of a chain of prosperous settle-
ments founded mainly by men from New England
States on sites where Scotch-Irish, German, and
other pioneers had taken up lands before the con-
flict. Thus it becomes a history, furnishing a type
of the settlement of Central New York.
In the history of the upper Susquehanna Valley
as a highway, three distinct periods might be named.
First come the trails of the Indian era, dating from
immemorial times and including the years of the
fur traders and the Protestant missions. Second
is the time from 1770 to 1783, when by turns the
valley was a road for pioneers coming into the
country, to be driven out by fire and the toma-
hawk ; a road for Indians bent on spoliation or
massacre ; a route by land and water for the sol-
diers of General Clinton ; and, finally, a route along
which the Indians, stirred to bitter revenge by Gen-
eral Sullivan's ravages, penetrated and laid waste all
that remained of the Mohawk and Schoharie settle-
ments. Third comes the period after the peace,
when the valley was the road for settlers bound for
the " Southern Tier " and Pennsylvania by way of
Wattles's Ferry, from 1784 on for many years, and
when from about 1800 it became at Unadilla the
terminus of two great turnpikes, the Catskill and
the Ithaca, which were the railroads of their time
and along which for a quarter of a century ran the
main course of trade and travel for a large inland
territory.
This history has long waited for consecutive and
full narration. More than half a century ago sev-
eral writers dealt with certain interesting parts of
it. Campbell, with an able and gentle hand, wrote
the story of the settlement of Cherry Valley, and of
4
WHY THIS HISTORY
stirring events in Tryon County during the Revo-
lution. Stone wrote the biography of Brant as
might one who loved Brant and honored his
memory. Simms gathered into his several publi-
cations an extensive and curious array of material.
Jay Gould, when still under age, revived much that
Campbell and Simms had brought to light, and
added other valuable information. Cooper, with
accuracy and fulness, recorded the annals of the
settlement developed by his father on Otsego Lake,
all of which Cooper himself may be said to have
seen and a large part of which he afterward was.
Some of these and other chronicles were printed
sixty or more years ago. They all long since had
passed out of print and out of the convenient
reach of purchasers, some of them being now very
scarce books. At the time of their publication,
moreover, a large store of important material,
printed and unprinted, which is now to be found
in State archives and in libraries, was either inacces-
sible, or for other reasons was not drawn upon.*
* Noteworthy material of this kind includes The Documentary His-
tory of the State of New York, 4 vols., 8vo; The New York Colon-
ial Documents, 15 vols., quarto; The New York Colonial and Land
Papers, 63 Ms. vols., fol.; The Public Papers of Governor George Clin-
ton, edited by Hugh Hastings, State Historian, 4 vols., 8vo, the same
being the part thus far published of the Clinton Manuscripts in the
State Library, comprising 48 large folio volumes, these manuscripts hav-
ing been largely used in the preparation of this work through permis-
sion from the State Library ; The Journals of the Legislative Coun-
cil and Provincial Congress, 4 vols., quarto; The New York Rev-
olutionary Papers, 2 vols., quarto; The New York State Archives,
I vol., quarto; The Journals of the Sullivan Expedition; The Draper
Collection of Brant Manuscripts in the library of the Wisconsin His-
torical Society at Madison, 23 vols., large octavo; The Sir William
Johnson Manuscripts, in the State Library, 25 vols., large folio, and
all of Parkman's writings. Most important of all this material, in so
far as relates to the Border Wars, are the Clinton Papers and Man-
uscripts. The intelligence shown by Mr. Hastings in initiating and
carrying forward the publication of these papers deserves special recog-
nition. Only in the light of this correspondence can the whole story of
5
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
This is true in eminent degree of the missionaries,
of whom very little has been heretofore written, and
by the above-mentioned writers, nothing. It is
true in large degree of the Border Wars, the real
origin and motives of which, especially on the side
of Brant and his Indian followers, as well as the full
details affecting this frontier, the author believes he
has here more clearly set forth. In fact, by com-
bining the new material with the old, it has now
become possible to prepare a continuous historical
record of the valley, covering the period from our
day back to the years when the feet of white men
first followed the Indian trails of the Susquehanna,
almost three centuries ago.
But there are limitations which seem destined al-
ways to exist. Beyond certain dates, those of about
two hundred years ago, the historical explorer has
at times little more to guide him than isolated facts,
and his imagination, as he seeks to find a way about
in the dim twilight of Indian legend and scattered
lore. It is not until the close of the seventeenth
century that he is well assisted by illuminating
records.
Previous to the Revolution, the growth and
spread of settlements in America had been extremely
slow everywhere. More than a century elapsed
after Columbus found the New World, before
Hendrick Hudson discovered the stream that bears
his name. A still longer period passed away before
the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower.
When permanent settlements were first planted in
this frontier in the Revolution be clearly understood. Stone saw some
of the papers, but many others seem never to have passed under his
eyes. A fuller list of authorities, the majority of which were unknown
to earlier writers, will be found in the bibliography at the end of this
volume.
6
WHY THIS HISTORY
the Susquehanna Valley, two and a half centuries
had come and gone since that memorable voyage
from the Port of Palos.
Those centuries, so barren of history here, had
witnessed events of great pith and moment elsewhere.
England had gone forward from the Wars of the
Roses almost to the reign of George III. Shake-
speare, Milton, Bacon, Dryden, and Pope are among
those gifted men of genius by whom her intellect-
ual greatness had been advanced. Her political
destiny meanwhile had been broadened and deepened
under Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and Cromwell. In
France had lived Richelieu and Louis XIV., while
under Charles V. and Philip II. a vast Spanish
empire had come into existence and decayed. On
the banks of the Hellespont, only forty years before
the voyage of Columbus, expired the last remnant
of the Empire of Rome, which embraced at one time,
as Gibbon said, " the fairest part of the earth and
the most civilized portion of mankind."
On American soil we can point to little of strik-
ing renown during those generations. Near the
end of them Washington had become a name asso-
ciated honorably with the French War. Jonathan
Edwards had astonished men in Europe, as well as
here, with the vigor and subtlety of his mind. Frank-
lin had made contributions to human knowledge of
great worth and potency. But of other eminent
names the records are bare. For the most part
men had been born, had lived, toiled, and died ab-
sorbed in the simple pursuits of trade and domestic
life.
In the province of New York the first successful
men were fur traders who exchanged Dutch goods
for beaver skins. During more than half a century
7
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
after Hudson's arrival these Dutchmen did scarcely
anything more. Villages grew up on Manhattan
Island and in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys.
The trader's boat penetrated down the head-waters
of the Susquehanna. But wherever villages were
founded, they were not so much permanent settle-
ments as trading -posts. Theodore Roosevelt has
justly observed that while the Dutch aspired to
secure large wealth for the mother-country, they
were devoid of ambition to found on these shores
a free Dutch nation.
As traders, the Dutch never promised to open a
way to great national wealth. For the eleven years
between 1624 and 1635 the beaver skins received
in Holland numbered only 80,1 82, and the otter and
other skins, 9,447, or about 8,000 skins of all kinds
per year. Albany, the fur depot for the whole
interior, was described by Father Jogues, in 1644, as
" a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of
logs with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon and as
many swivels, with some twenty-five or thirty houses
built of boards with thatched roofs." Except in
the chimneys, "no mason's work had been used."
Scarcely more enterprise marked the first years of
English rule. As late as 1695 tne trade amounted
to only ^10,000, while in 1678 Governor Andros re-
ported that a merchant worth $2,500 or $5,000 was
"accounted a good, substantial merchant," and a
planter " worth half that in movables " was a pros-
perous citizen. The value of all estates in the prov-
ince was only $750,000. Clearly, that was a time of
very small things, but they were among the fruitful
beginnings of a land and people from which was to
grow the greatest of all the States, and in them this
frontier had an ample share.
PART I
Indians and Fur Traders
The Iroquois
and
the Susquehanna
WE cannot understand the Indians of New
York if we judge them only by what is
seen to-day of Indian life in the Far West,
among tribes who roam the mountains and plains,
and who have emerged so little from the nomad
state; or if we judge the Iroquois by their descend-
ants now living on reservations. Not alone has
their territorial dominion passed away, but their
genius also — at least, in its manifestations. They
have remained silent witnesses of the progress of
civilized life on American soil — stolid, unimpas-
sioned, proud. Before the white man came was
their time of splendor; after that began their de-
cadence.
The Iroquois, in their best days, were the noblest
and most interesting of all Indians who have lived
on this continent north of Mexico. They were
truly the men whom a name they bore described,
a word signifying men who surpassed all others.
They alone founded political institutions and gained
political supremacy. With European civilization
unknown to them, they had given birth to self-
government in America. They founded independ-
ence ; effected a union of States ; carried their arms
far beyond their own borders ; made their conquests
permanent; conquered peoples becoming tributary
ii
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
States much after the manner of those which Rome
conquered two thousand years ago, or those which
England subdues in our day. In diplomacy they
matched the white man from Europe : they had
self-control, knowledge of human nature, tact and
sagacity, and they often became the arbiters in
disputes between other peoples. Universal testi-
mony has been borne to their oratory, of which the
merit was its naturalness, and which bears the su-
preme test of translation. Convinced that they were
born free, they bore themselves always with the
pride which sprang from that consciousness. Sov-
ereigns they were, and the only accountability they
acknowledged was an accountability to the Great
Spirit.
In war genius they have been equalled by no race
of red men. The forts which they erected around
their villages were essentially impregnable. An
overwhelming force alone could enter them ; artil-
lery alone could destroy them. It was virtually an
empire that they reared, and this empire of the
sword, like the Empire of Rome, meant peace with-
in its borders. Before the Europeans came, there
had, unquestionably, for some generations, been
peace among them. It was an ideal and an idyllic
state of aboriginal life, all of which was to be over-
thrown by the white man when he arrived, bearing
in one hand fire-arms, and in the other fire-water.
The period for which the province of New York
had been occupied by the Iroquois, :!: or Five Na-
tions, at the time of the Dutch discovery, is not
known. Morgan -f cites circumstances which show
* The origin of this word has been long discussed. Horatio Hale re-
fers it to a native Huron word, ierokwa, indicating those who smoke.
t Lewis H. Morgan, author of "The League of the Iroquois," the
best of all books relating to the institutions and customs of that people,
12
AN IROQUOIS FORT
(Believed to have stood on the shore of Onondaga Lake. Besieged by Champlain in 1615.)
IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA
that the Iroquois League had existed for about a
century when the Dutch landed, thus carrying its
formation back almost to the coming of Columbus.
Indian tradition pointed to a much older date, but
Indian tradition is a very uncertain guide for dates.
We know that before the League was formed, the
Iroquois had long been in possession of these New
York lands. They came originally from the St.
Lawrence Valley and had lived near the site of
Montreal, at which point some of their descendants
now reside. But when their first migration into
Central New York took place, we do not know.
Five nations originally composed the League, the
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and
Senecas ; but the Tuscaroras, who had long lived
in North Carolina, early in the eighteenth century,
were permitted to settle in New York and become
members of the federation. Thenceforth these
Indians were known as the Six Nations.
Writers have been fond of dwelling upon the
masterly statesmanship which directed the formation
of the League. So far from being a compact de-
signed to promote war, its avowed purpose, as un-
derstood by Hale, was " to abolish war altogether."
Dr. Brinton is quoted by Grinnell as pronouncing
the scheme " one of the most far-sighted and, in its
aims, the most beneficent" that ever statesman de-
signed for mankind. After its formation the Iro-
was born in Aurora, N. Y., in 1818, and died in Rochester in 1881.
He was a graduate of Union College, a lawyer for many years, and
served several terms in the State Legislature. He often visited the New
York Indians on their reservations and was adopted by the Senecas. He
wrote other books on aboriginal life in America, the scientific nature of
which has been much esteemed. But "The League of the Iroquois"
is the best known. It has long been out of print and scarce. Hardly
more than one copy a year turns up in the auction sales. A reprint is
much needed.
13
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
quois rose rapidly in power and eventually made
their influence felt all over the eastern part of the
continent. They are known to have carried their
arms westward to the Mississippi and southward to
the Carolinas. They entered Mexico, and La Salle
found them in Illinois. Captain John Smith, while
exploring Chesapeake Bay, encountered there a small
fleet of their canoes. Other Indians assured him
that the Mohawks " made war upon all the world."
Everywhere these New York Indians were con-
querors. They gained at last a recognized mastery
over territory that now forms States and might make
an empire, their influence reaching its height at the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Morgan de-
clares that in point of sway they had reared the most
powerful empire that ever existed in America north
of the Aztec monarchy. Miss Yawger quotes a re-
mark, that their authority at one time extended over
a larger domain than was embraced in the Empire of
Rome, and Ellis H. Roberts has said they " ran in
conquest farther than the Greek arms were ever car-
ried, and to distances which Rome surpassed only
in the days of its culminating glory." As for the
ultimate purpose of the League being the abolition
of war, this undoubtedly was its tendency, once con-
quest had been achieved. As with the Empire of
Rome, so with the Empire of the Iroquois ; within
the borders of the empire there was peace. Morgan
believes the Iroquois might have achieved still
greater eminence. Parkman says they afford " per-
haps an example of the highest elevation which
man can reach without emerging from the primitive
condition of the hunter." But deadly enemies ar-
rived when the white man came with his ambitions
and his fire-water.
IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA
It is interesting to reflect that this federation of
warlike people had for its capital a small village near
Onondaga * Lake where general congresses were
held, and the policy of the League agreed upon. To
Onondaga, highways from the south, east, and west
conveniently led. These men lived on the highest
land of the continent east of the Mississippi. They
were at the head-waters of great rivers, and thus were
able to reach nations less powerful than themselves,
whom repeatedly they brought into subjection.
Past the confluence of the Unadilla and Susque-
hanna rivers, messengers of peace or war, warriors
going to battle and returning from victories in the
south, made their way.
This strategic advantage in very notable manner
was to serve the Indians in the eighteenth century
when menaced by a conflict between Europeans —
the English and the French — for possession of their
country. No one understood the advantage better
than the Indians themselves. At Onondaga they
declared that " if the French should prevail so far
as to attempt to drive us out of our country, we
can with our old men, wives and children, come
down the streams of the Mohawk River, the Dela-
ware, both branches of the Susquehanna and the
Potomac, to the English. If the English should
expell us our country, we have a like conveyance to
the French by the streams of St. Lawrence and
Sorrell River, and if both should join, we can retire
across the Lakes."
The Iroquois, though powerful as a confederacy,
were never a numerous people. Just before the
Revolution it is unlikely that they numbered more
* People of the mountain is the translation Dr. Beauchamp gives for
Onondaga.
!5
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
than 15,000 souls, if so many — hardly one-third the
present population of Otsego County. When their
influence was greatest, and they had not begun to
suffer from the white man's vices, they are believed
to have numbered perhaps 25,000, though never
more. As late as 1873, official reports placed the
total number then living at 13,660. At the close
of the Revolution their population was considerably
less than at the beginning; instead of 15,000 it
probably did not equal the number returned in
1873. More of the Iroquois may, therefore, be
living now than were living at the close of the
Revolution.*
Those Iroquois lands of which this volume
mainly treats, had been the property of the Mo-
hawks and Oneidas.*]* The Unadilla River and
part of the present town of Unadilla, with perhaps
all of it, were Oneida territory. Farther east were
Mohawk lands. The Oneidas are known to have
sold land as far east as Herkimer and Delhi. Evi-
dence, however, which Morgan regards as safe,
begins the line of division at a point five miles east
of Utica and extends it directly south to Penn-
sylvania, making Unadilla border-land between the
two nations. Lands in several parts of Otsego
County were sold by the Mohawks, but none lay
as far west as Unadilla. John M. Brown, who
went to Schoharie in 1750, says that after 1763 or
* Schoolcraft, writing in 1846, after taking a census, gave much
lower estimates than any of these. At the beginning of the Revolution
their number, he thought, was under 10,000, and in 1846 only 6,942. Of
the latter total, 4,836 were then living in the United States and 3,843 in
New York State alone. He thought their worldly condition at that time
such as would promote a considerable increase within a short period.
•f- Mohawk, or the other form of the word, Maqua, has been com-
monly defined as meaning bear. It has also been said to signify a man-
eater. The word Oneida, means people of the stone.
16
IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA
1764, the Mohawks claimed land as far south and
west as the mouth of Schenevus Creek, and that it
was only after establishing their claims that they
made sales to Sir William Johnson. Beyond the
Unadilla River and extending to the Chenango lay
Oneida lands, but in this part of the province early
in the eighteenth century a tract was granted to the
Tuscaroras,* who had come up from their earlier
home in the Carolinas, and thus made the six
nations where before there had been five.
In the summer of 1608, one year before Hen-
drick Hudson explored another great river, Captain
John Smith made a tour of Chesapeake Bay as far
north as the mouth of the Susquehanna. Here he
met the Indians whose name this river bears. Writ-
ing the word Sasquesahanocks, he called them " a
mighty people and mortall enemies with the Was-
sawoneks." They were " great and well-propor-
tioned men," and " seemed like giants to the Eng-
lish." He found them " of an honest and simple
disposition, with much adoe restrained from adoring
us as gods." George Alsop, who wrote sixty years
later in a kind of extravagant language peculiar to
him, described them as " cast into the mould of a
most large and warlike deportment, the men being
for the most part seven foot high in latitude, and in
magnitude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch ;
their voyce large and hollow, as ascending out of
a cave, their gait and behaviour straight, stately and
majestic, treading on the earth with as much pride,
contempt and disdain to so sordid a centre as can be
imagined from a creature derived from the same
mould and earth." The stream which they inhab-
ited and seldom departed from, except for war, Al-
* The accepted translation of this word is shirt-wearers,
17
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
sop says was " called by their own name the Sus-
quehannock River."
These Indians, the most powerful tribe in Mary-
land, were among the fiercest enemies of the Iro-
quois, by whom and by the white men of Virginia
they were at last subdued. A greater enemy, how-
ever, had been found in the small-pox, which in
1 66 1 and later years reduced the number of the
warriors from seven hundred to three hundred, and
thenceforth for a hundred years they remained " a
weak and dwindling people." The last remnant of
them perished in 1753 in Lancaster Jail, " cruelly
butchered by a mob." The famous orator Logan
was their most celebrated chief.
The name Susquehanna is described by Simms as
" an aboriginal word said to signify crooked river." *
This interpretation has long survived, and perhaps to
Cooper more than to anyone else is its survival due.
Cooper gives that meaning in " The Pioneers."
The word is not found in Iroquois dictionaries. It
is not even an Iroquois word, although the name
of an Iroquois stream and of a people who became
allies of the Iroquois. It is, in fact, an Algon-
quin word, and seems to have come from the Lenni
Lenapes, or Delawares. Heckewelder, the mission-
ary, says it is properly the word " Sisquehanne,"
and he advances the opinion that it came "from
* History of Schoharie County. Jephtha Root Simms was a native of
Connecticut, and in 1829 was employed in New York City in a retail
store. His health failing, he removed in 1832 to Schoharie County,
where he went into business. He afterward became a toll -collector on
the Erie Canal at Fultonville. Later he served as ticket-agent for the
New York Central Road at Fort Plain, and at Fort Plain in 1883 he died
at the age of seventy-six. Simms's History of Schoharie County was
first published in 1845. Just before his death he brought out an en-
larged edition in two volumes with a new title, The Frontiersmen.
Mr. Simms all his life was an industrious collector of local material.
He wrote entertainingly and told a story well.
18
IROQUOIS AND SUSQUEHANNA
siska, meaning mud, and hanne, a stream." It had
been overheard, he says, by some of the first set-
tlers in times of high water in such expressions as
" Jah ! Achsisquehanne," meaning how muddy the
stream is. Authorities to whom the author appealed
have cited Heckewelder's interpretation, and among
them the late James C. Pilling, who devoted many
years to a study of the Indian languages. Dr. Beau-
champ, however, gives Quen-isch-achsch-gek-hanne
as a word from which Heckewelder once thought
Susquehanna might have been derived by corrup-
tion. This word means " river with long reaches,"
which is a fair equivalent for "crooked river." It is
certainly a more accurate description than " muddy
stream."
The Iroquois had another name for the Susque-
hanna, Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh, which means " great isl-
and," and to which Gehunda, the common word for
river, was added to get Great Island River. At the
mouth of the stream, lying squarely athwart it, is an
island perhaps a mile long, that was formerly known
as Palmer's Island, but later has been called Wat-
son's Island. It lies exactly where lived the Sus-
quehanna Indians. The mainland opposite has
been found to be very rich in weapons, domestic
utensils, etc., many thousands of specimens hav-
ing been found, and sometimes as many as a hun-
dred in a single place. On this island was made
the first white settlement in that part of Mary-
land some twenty-five or thirty years after Smith's
visit. The Susquehanna is remarkable elsewhere
for the number and size of its islands, especially
in Pennsylvania. Where the Juniata flows in,
exists an island of very unusual size. On the
Guy Johnson map of the country of the Six Na-
x 9
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
tions appears a place in Pennsylvania called Great
Island.*
A description of the upper valley was given in
1683 by Indian chiefs to James Graham and Will-
iam Haig, agents of William Penn, who had arrived
in Albany. From the Mohawk Valley to "the
lake whence the Susquehanna river rises " they said
the distance was " one day's journey," and from the
lake " to the Susquehanna Castles," meaning the
Indian towns in the Wyoming Valley, was ten days.
From Oneida to " the kill which falls into the Sus-
quehanna," this kill being the Unadilla River, was
one and a half days' journey, and from the kill to
its mouth was one day's journey.
* An interesting interpretation of the word Susquehanna has reached
the author from the Iroquois village of Caughnawaga, above Montreal.
He wrote to a French gentleman at that place to learn if the Marcoux Dic-
tionary, preserved there in manuscript at the Jesuit Mission, could shed
any light on the question. The gentleman replied that it gave none what-
ever, but he kindly submitted the matter to a learned abbe from another
place and forwarded the abbe's reply, which is as follows, translated
from the French :
" We are here inclined to think the word is a corruption of Sequana,
the Latin word for the Seine. It is the opinion of M. B., who is here
on vacation, opinion which for him has passed to the state of a certain
truth since the adhesion of a Paulist father which has just reached us,
and assures us that the Sequana of the United States has, like that of
France, at its mouth a harbor called Havre de Grace, and that it was the
French Huguenots who, settling in that place, brought together the
name of the city and the name of the river."
To establish this theory it would be necessary to show that French
Huguenots settled at the mouth of the river at a time earlier than the ar-
rival of Smith, and proof of this is wanting. A romantic name Muddy
Stream certainly is not. River with the Long Reaches is much better.
Best of all is Great Island River, the name bestowed upon the stream by
those who owned it. And by that name it would be both fitting and
agreeable for those who love it to have it known.
20
II
Indian Villages
in the
Upper Valley
THE Indian population on the upper Sus-
quehanna was centred in small villages. It
was never large. Parkman, in reference to
the whole continent, has remarked that the Indians
everywhere were few and scattered Even in parts
thought to be well peopled, " one might sometimes
journey for days together through the twilight for-
est and meet no human form." Around the Sus-
quehanna villages small clearings had usually been
made. Apple-orchards had been planted and there
were frequent corn-fields ; but otherwise the virgin
territory bore few indications that men were dwell-
ing upon it.
The foot of Otsego Lake was a favorite resort.
In that fact Cooper found the origin of the word
Otsego, the particular place where meetings were
held being Council Rock. A meaning cited by
Campbell * is " clear, deep water," but other writers,
like Morgan, pass the word by without defining it.
Dr. Beauchamp gives the forms Otesaga and Osten-
* Annals of Tryon County. The author of this work, William W.
Campbell, was born in Cherry Valley in 1806, and died in 1881. He
was graduated from Union College, read law with Judge Kent, and
practised in New York, where, in 1849, he was appointed a Justice of the
Superior Court. From 1857 until 1865 he was a Judge of the State
Supreme Court for the Sixth District. He also served a term in Con-
gress. His Annals were published in 1831, and a revised edition
with a new title, Border Warfare, in 1849. A third edition came out
21
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
ha, and says they are traditionally supposed to refer
to Council Rock. In crossing from the Mohawk,
to the Susquehanna, Indians regularly came by way
of this lake.
The rock had unquestionably been a favorite
haunt of theirs. Cooper describes it as " a large iso-
lated stone that rested on the bottom of the lake,
apparently left there when the waters tore away the
earth from around it, in forcing for themselves a pas-
sage down the river." The trees that overhung it
formed " a noble and appropriate canopy to a seat
that had held many a forest chieftain during the long
succession of unknown ages in which America and
all it contained existed apart as a world by itself." In
times of extreme low water the rock now appears as
an oval cone about nine feet in diameter one way
and six the other. From the bed on which it rests
it rises about four and a half feet. When the water
is extremely high the rock is covered.
It is clear that the Indians did not know the lake
by the name Otsego. In Dongan's time they called
it " the lake whence the Susquehanna takes its rise."
Colden, in 1 73 8, referred to it in similar terms. The
Mohawk chief Abraham, in 1745, described certain
lands to William Johnson as lying " at the head of
Susquehanna Lake," and an Onondaga orator at
Johnson Hall, in 1765, called it "Cherry Valley
Lake." In letters written from the lake in 1765,
in 1880 from the printing-office of John L. Sawyer, of Cherry Valley.
Judge Campbell was the father of the late Douglas Campbell, author of
The Puritan in Holland, England and America, published in 1892.
Judge Campbell wrote his Annals while studying law in Cherry Valley.
He occupied a room in the Cherry Valley Academy, afterward converted
into a hotel, and burned in July, 1894. In that building, in the summer
of 1892, the author had the pleasure of meeting his widow. Of all books
devoted to the early history of the Susquehanna Valley, Campbell's An-
nals, the first important one to be published, is perhaps first in intrinsic
charm. Stone's work is largely devoted to other parts of the country.
21
O c
U 1
u ™
o c
INDIAN VILLAGES
missionaries called it Otsego Lake, which is perhaps
the earliest use of the name on record. On the
Augsburg map of the province, dated 1777, oc-
curs the form " Lake Assega," which would imply
that the name had then found official acceptance.
Excellent hunting and fishing were here to be ob-
tained. The first settlers on the site of Coopers-
town found arrow-heads and stone hatchets in great
abundance. The apple-trees were of large size.
Cooper thought the place had been more or less fre-
quented by Indian traders for a century before the
regular settlement began. The English early rec-
ognized the Susquehanna as a gate-way to the South.
In 1 72 1 the King was advised to erect a fort near
where the river flows out of the lake.
Remains of ancient villages on the river at points*
below Cooperstown have often been discovered.
Small relics in considerable numbers have been pre-
served in private hands. Perhaps the largest col-
lection ever made was the one destroyed in the
Oneonta Normal School fire in the winter of 1892-
93. It had been formed by W. E. Yager, and
numbered somewhere about 1,500 specimens. It
was the only loss by that fire which State appropria-
tions have not been able to replace. In 1892 on a
farm near the old Goodyear Mills was found a cup
of clay that had been used for melting lead. An-
other find in the same place was a pipe-bowl.
When Gideon Hawley came down the valley
in 1753, he found at the mouth of Schenevus
Creek,* or the Charlotte, a village of some size,
then inhabited and called Towanoendlough, which
* Generally said to have been named after an Indian who lived on the
stream, but A. Cusick told Dr. Beauchamp that the word meant first
hoeing of corn. The form Sheniba occurs on a map dated 1790.
2 3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
was the frontier town of the Mohawks. Here,
some years ago, in a time of flood, many signs of an
Indian burial-place were washed to the surface.
Harvey Baker has described a village that existed
west of the mouth of the Charlotte on the lands
now owned by the Slades, and including the adja-
cent Beam's Island, on which is a mound supposed
to contain the remains of an Indian chief named
Alagatinga. An apple-orchard flourished here.
What appears to have been another rather large
village stood at the mouth of Otego * Creek. It
had orchards extending along the northern side of
the river, embracing lands afterward known as the
Van Woert, Calkins, and Stoughton Alger farms.
Several miles down the river, just above the mouth
of Sand Hill Creek, is a whirlpool which the Ind-
ians called Kaghneantasis, meaning where the water
goes round.
About one mile below Unadilla Village on the
north side of the river, long existed a heap of
stones, called the Indian Monument. Gideon
Hawley thought the pile was due to an Indian cus-
tom of throwing a stone to the spot when passing,
as a recognition of the existence of a supreme being.
William A. Fry, of Sidney, remembered that in
1830 an Indian arrived at the Hough farm to cast
a stone upon the pile. The Indian said if the act
were neglected by his tribe in any one year, the tribe
would become extinct — a belief pointing to fear of
God. A heap of stones similar to this was used by
surveyors for one of the corners of Tryon County
at a place now embraced in Schoharie. The stones
were small and flat, and there were many thousands
* Wauteghe was the eighteenth-century form of this word. Later it
was called Adiga, and then the form Atege occurs.
24
INDIAN VILLAGES
of them. Two miles farther down the river was
an old Indian camping-ground. David McMaster,
who was born there, remembered that in his boy-
hood arrow-heads were very common in a garden
attached to his father's house.
The mouth of the Unadilla River was long a
favorite resort of hunters. The hill on the Una-
dilla side was frequently burned over in the autumn,
and hence got the name of Burnt Hill. It has
since been called Mount Moses, and by that name
is called in the original survey made in 1791 for
the river-road running at its base. On the Sidney
side of the stream, in 1772, existed an ancient
fort which the Indians declared had been erected
" five hundred summers ago." It contained three
acres of land enclosed by a mound, and ditch.
David Cusick, the Tuscarora Indian who wrote
a history of the Six Nations, * went over the site of
this fort in 1 800, and says it was built by Sau-rau-
roh-wah, an Indian of great stature, with the strength
of ten ordinary men. This giant carried on war
against his enemies along the Susquehanna. He
would lie in ambush near the path, " and whenever
the people are passing he shoots them." He
" used a plump arrow, which was so violent that it
would break the body in two parts."
Sau-rau-roh-wah became so troublesome that
plans were laid to destroy him. A favorite dish of
his, including huckleberries, was taken to him by
three warriors, and while he was eating it one of
them with a club, which had been concealed under
a blanket, dealt him a terrific blow on the head.
* Cusick's work is not held in esteem by historians, but is interesting
as showing something of the character of Indian tradition. Parkman
describes it as containing "a few grains of truth inextricably mingled
with a tangled mass of absurdities."
2 5
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Running out of the fort the giant rushed toward
the river, but " sank in the mire which was near the
bank." The warriors then overtook and killed
him on the spot. They " spoiled his house and
obtained a large quantity of skin, etc., and the fort
was ruined ever since." Cusick attempts to fix the
date of this incident, making it eight hundred or
a thousand years before Columbus landed, which
would mean 500 or 700 of our era. The value of
these dates is of the very slightest.
Until recent years there existed at Sidney an
Indian relic known as the Knoll. It was level on
top, some fifteen feet high, and across the top meas-
ured about ten rods. A portion of it was irrever-
ently carted away by the builders of the Ontario
and Western Railroad, for use in rearing an embank-
ment. Bones and other remains were found there,
but they did not stay the hands of the spoilers.
Directly across the river is another elevation of
ground in which Indian relics have been unearthed.
The name Unadilla was originally applied not
only as now to the Unadilla side of the two rivers,
but to lands across them included in the towns of
Sidney and Bainbridge. It was a term for all the
territory adjacent to the confluence and now inter-
sected by the boundaries of three counties. When
the need arose for a more definite name for the
Sidney side, the names Johnston Settlement before
the Revolution, and Susquehanna Flats after it,
were brought into use. These terms were employed
for about thirty years, and were then superseded by
the name Sidney.
One of the meanings assigned to Unadilla by
local tradition is " Pleasant Valley." It has also
been said to stand for some kind of a stream. The
26
INDIAN VILLAGES
meaning given by Morgan, our best authority, is
" place of meeting," which refers to the meeting of
the two streams. The word has been spelled in
many ways. As in the Fort Stanwix deed, we find
Tianaderha, so Gideon Hawley, in 1753, wrote Tey-
onadelhough. Richard Smith cites the form Tuna-
derrah. Other forms are Cheonadilha and Deuna-
dilla, while Unendilla and Unideally are common.
Joseph Brant, in a letter to Persefer Carr, wrote
" Tunadilla." All these forms resulted from the
white man's efforts to put into writing the word as
pronounced by various tribes. The form Unadilla
comes nearest to the Oneida dialect, which has the
charm of greater softness than the others. Stone is
at a loss to understand why the pioneers were not
content to accept as final the spelling adopted by an
educated Indian like Brant.*
Near Afton, on an island, was a village called
Cunahunta, a word sometimes written Conihunto,
and Gunnegunter, but most important of all these
Indian settlements was Oghwaga,f where at the
* The reader will be impressed with the likeness of the form Teyona
delhough to the name of another Indian village referred to by
Gideon Hawley as Towanoendalough, which also was a place where
trails and streams met. A word much like it, Teondaloga, was ap-
plied by the Indians to Fort Hunter, the place where the Schoharie joins
the Mohawk, the meaning of which was, where two streams come to-
gether. Another form for the Fort Hunter place is Iconderoga, which
closely resembles Ticonderoga. Other words in Iroquois dialects for
places at the junction of two streams are Tiorunda, now Fishkill ; Ti-
osarande, now Luzerne, andTiogen, now Tioga Point. Between Teyon-
adelhough and Teondaloga there is very close resemblance. Each is the
English spelling of a Mohawk utterance, and they seem originally to have
been the same word. The present spelling of Unadilla was adopted
when the town was formed. In the Poor Master's book of 1793 it is
written as we write it now. How long the name had been in use before
Hawley used it is, of course, matter of conjecture. But it was the name of
a place before it ever was applied to a stream. In 1683 the Indians
called the river "the Kill which falls into the Susquehanna." The
stream had obviously at that time received no name.
t Spelled in almost every conceivable manner. Among the forms are
27
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
time of the Revolution existed the largest Indian
town in the valley, with an orchard, a church, a fort,
and many other signs of civilization. It was long a
central trading post for the Susquehanna and Dela-
ware rivers, where Indians from the Far West and
South met traders from Albany and Schenectady,
who, for furs, gave in exchange guns, powder,
blankets, and knives. This importance of Ogh-
waga began very early — before 1650 I think — and
probably as soon as the Dutch had become well
established as traders in Albany. The Oghwaga
Indians were detachments from the Mohawks,
Oneidas, and other tribes, and in 1757 the place
had become what Stone calls " an aboriginal Port
Royal, where many of the Six Nations who had
become disgusted with the politics of their several
cantons were in the habit of settling."
As early as 1748 Oghwaga had become a mission-
ary station, and in the Revolution was a head-quarters
for Joseph Brant. Among the apple-trees the first
settlers ploughed up many Indian bones. The apple-
trees produced fruit, fair and round, and often a
Oneaquaga, Oughquagy, Onoaughquagey, Ononghquage, Auquauga,
Anaquaga, Oughquogey, Anaquegha, Onaquaga, Aughquagee, Ochquaga,
Aughquagey, Oquaca, Oguaga, Anaquaqua, Oquage, and Okwaha. The
form Okwaho is used in the Marcoux Dictionary, which gives the mean-
ing wolf. This was a term applied to one of the Mohawk tribes.
Gideon Hawley wrote Onohoghquage. Dr. O'Callaghan employed the
form Oghquaga. For the present village in the town of Colesville, the
spelling is Ouaquaga. At Deposit a hotel uses for its name the form
Oquaga, which is also employed for a small lake of this name. The
northerly branch of the Delaware has been called the Coquago branch.
Wilkinson wrote Oquago, and Washington Anaquaga. Stone adopted
the form Oghkwaga. Sir William Johnson wrote Oghquago — though
not always. Brant, after the battle of Minisink, used the form Ogh-
wage. Brant was a Mohawk Indian who knew how to spell. The
word is pronounced in three syllables. In order to secure such pronun-
ciation the author has taken the liberty of converting Brant's final " e "
into an "a," making it Oghwaga. A. Cusick told Dr. Beauchamp he
thought the word meant place of hulled-corn soup.
INDIAN VILLAGES
pound in weight. Many curious trinkets were un-
earthed, and near the old castle war-implements.
The Indian path over Oghwaga mountain was
plainly visible for more than sixty years after the
Indians ceased to travel it. These Indians formed
a large tribe. In 1770 they sent one hundred and
twenty-four representatives to the congress at Ger-
man Flatts. In 1772 some Indians living at Ogh-
waga were known as the Ochtaghquanawecroones.
The town lay on both sides of the river, just below
a large bend in the stream. The present village of
Windsor occupies a part of the site. Just below
Oghwaga lay another town called Tuscarora.
The trails which followed the Susquehanna and
its branches formed the great route to the south and
west from Central New York. Into the most dis-
tant regions the tribes of the Iroquois from the ear-
liest ages had gone over this highway of their own
building for purposes of war, plunder, and pleasure.
Along the banks of this stream trails had been
deeply worn by red men's feet. Generations had
passed over them, and the white man, coming later,
put them to use before constructing roads of his
own. In many cases the white man's roads were
actually built by widening the trails, as was the case
with the present road from Sidney to Unadilla on
the northern side of the river and the main thorough-
fare of Oneonta.*
An Indian trail, as described by Morgan, was
from twelve to eighteen inches wide, and was often
worn to a depth of a foot where the soil yielded
readily. In time of war, trained runners were em-
ployed to carry messages to distant points. Along
* Formerly written Onoyarenton, and applied also to the creek of this
name — its meaning, a stony place.
29
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
these well-worn paths relays of men were known to
cover the space from Albany to Buffalo in three
days. One Indian could run one hundred miles in
a day. This extraordinary skill has been ascribed
to the absence of horses in America before the com-
ing of Europeans. Indians, from necessity, acquired
the accomplishment of the horse. They did more.
They performed feats which only the well-trained
bicyclist can perform to-day. They made century
runs.
The upper Susquehanna and its branches, includ-
ing the Unadilla, penetrated lands in which dwelt or
hunted Mohawks, Oneidas, and Onondagas, while
the Chemung penetrated the lands of the Senecas.
These rivers, uniting at Tioga Point to become one
river, flowed down from a large territory in which
dwelt the Iroquois nations. That territory, as Mor-
gan points out, is shaped somewhat like a triangle,
of which Tioga Point is the apex, while its base is
the great central trail from the Hudson to Lake
Erie. Thus in Indian times, as in our own, this lat-
ter locality, the base of the triangle, possessed the
greatest of all New York highways. Down these
streams from the Long House of the Iroquois went
almost every Indian who journeyed to the south,
with Tioga the great central point of meeting.
The Susquehanna trails followed both sides of the
stream ; the one taking the north bank meeting at
the Unadilla River the Oneida trail coming from
the north. Proceeding up the Susquehanna, one
trail went on to Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley,
while the other followed the Charlotte,* crossing
* The Indian name of this stream was Adaquetangie. When Sir Will-
iam Johnson got his patent to the valley, he changed the name to Char-
lotte as a compliment to the Queen of George III., Queen Victoria's
grandmother.
3°
INDIAN VILLAGES
from the head of the stream to Cobleskill * and the
Schoharie, f whence a trail ran along that stream
to the Lower Castle of the Mohawks at Fort
Hunter, and to Albany, with a branch following
Catskill Creek to the Hudson River. For the
Mohawk country, the Hudson River Valley and
for lands east of the Hudson, here lay the most
direct route west by the Susquehanna and Ohio,
and south to Chesapeake Bay. On this subject
of highways a truthful and pathetic speech was
made in 1847 by Peter Wilson, a Cayuga chief,
before the New York Historical Society, in these
words :
The Empire State, as you love to call it, was once
laced by our trails from Albany to Buffalo — trails that we
had trod for centuries — trails worn so deep by the feet of
the Iroquois that they became your roads of travel, as your
possessions gradually eat into those of my people. Your
roads still traverse those same lines of communication which
bound one part of the Long House to the other. Have we,
the first holders of this prosperous region, no longer a share
in your history ? Glad were your fathers to sit down upon
the threshold of the Long House. Had our forefathers
spurned you from it when the French were thundering at
the opposite gate to get a passage through and drive you
into the sea, whatever has been the fate of other Indians,
the Iroquois might still have been a nation, and I, instead
of pleading here, for the privilege of living within your bor-
ders — I might have had a country.
* Originally Cobus Kill and of German origin. An Indian name for it,
given by Dr. Beauchamp, is Otsgaragu, meaning Hemp Hill.
f Many forms occur in earlier writings. Dr. Beauchamp gives the
meaning, driftwood.
Ill
The
Coming of White Men
i 6 14-1740
THE Susquehanna Valley had been visited
by Europeans several years before the
Pilgrim Fathers made their landing at
Plymouth. When Captain Christiaensen, the stur-
dy Dutch navigator, in 16 14, selected Albany as the
site of a trading post and erected near there a fort,
he acted on knowledge already acquired concerning
its relation to those routes into the Indian country
which converged near the confluence of the Mo-
hawk and the Hudson. In that year or the next,
two men, of whom one was named Kleynties, set
out from Fort Orange (Albany) to explore the fur
country, and crossing from the Mohawk to Otsego
Lake, proceeded down the Susquehanna into Penn-
sylvania. On the information these men secured
was in part based that interesting piece of Dutch
cartography called the Figurative Map, which shows
not only the Connecticut, Hudson, and Mohawk
rivers, but another stream, the home of" Sennecas"
and " Minquas " (Mohawks).
The course of this stream, as shown on the map,
does not conform to any stream we know, but there
was only one river inhabited by Senecas and Mo-
hawks beyond the river Mohawk. This was the
Susquehanna and its branches. About forty years
later (in 1659) another map, that of Visscher, pub-
32
THE COMING OF WHITE MEN
lished at Amsterdam, gave a more accurate outline
of a river which is unquestionably the upper Sus-
quehanna and its branches. At its head, living on
the shores of a lake, were men called " Canoo-
makers." This lake appears to have been Otsego.
On the Figurative Map is a marginal note in Dutch
referring to "what Kleynties and his comrade have
communicated to me respecting the locality of the
rivers and the positions of the tribes which they
found in their expedition from the Maquaas into
the interior and along the new river down to the
Ogehage." * At the latter place lived enemies of
the Iroquois. The "new river" was the Delaware.
Another Dutchman soon explored the country
farther south, one Hendrickson, Christiaensen's suc-
cessor in command of the ship, who made discovery
of " certain lands, a bay and three rivers " between
the 38th and 40th degrees of parallel, making report
as follows to the States General in August, 1616:
And did there trade with the inhabitants ; said trade
consisting of sables, furs, robes and other skins. He also
traded for and bought from the Minquaes f three persons,
being people belonging to this company, which three per-
sons were employed in the service of the Mohawks and
Mahicans, giving for them kettles, beads, and merchandise.
A visit to the head-waters of the Susquehanna
was made in 161 6 by Stephen Bruehle, whose pur-
pose was part of a larger purpose entertained by the
Dutch at that time to secure Indian warriors to aid
them in a conflict with the French, who were then
pressing down from Canada. From these warlike
* The Figurative Map was found in the archives at The Hague in 1841.
f A Mohawk village appears on the Figurative Map, near the mouth
of the Susquehanna.
33
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
preparations dates the beginning of that alliance
between the Six Nations and the white men of
New York around which so much history thence-
forth for a century and a half was to revolve.
From it dates also the Indians' familiarity with
fire-arms.
During the Dutch domination and the first years
of English rule, many traders came into the valley.
As the century was rounding well into its last
quarter, not only the English at Albany, but an
Englishman farther south, William Penn, began to
show new and livelier interest in the territory. By
that time its value in the fur trade had been amply
demonstrated. When Dongan came over as Gov-
ernor, new energy at once was infused into the ad-
ministration. In 1683 Commissioners at Albany
obtained for him an account of the river and its
relations to the Indian settlements, their information
coming from Europeans, or " Christians," as white
men were then called, as well as from Indians.
The Commissioners recommended that regular
traders be sent out, to form camps or settlements
along the valley. It was argued that these places
would be much nearer the Indians than Albany
was, " and consequently the Indians more inclinable
to go there." The recommendation in part sprang
from a desire to thwart certain efforts made by
Penn to increase his trade, and in part from a desire
to accede to the requests of Indians, but in the
main Penn's ambition was the moving cause.
In a short time adventurous young men set out
on journeys to the interior. Dongan, in 1686, re-
quested the Indians to see that " neither French nor
English go and live at the Susquehanna River, nor
hunt nor trade amongst the brethren without my
34
THE COMING OF WHITE MEN
pass and seal." Should any be found without such
passports, he desired the Indians to " bring them to
Albany and deliver them at the Town House, where
care shall be taken for punishing them." He would
not make exception in cases of white men married
to squaws, " they being only spies upon the breth-
ren." The reply was that " we dare not meddle
therewith, for a man whose goods are taken from
him will defend himself, which may create trouble or
war." In the following year Dongan desired to se-
cure royal authority for erecting " a campagne fort "
upon the Susquehanna River, " where his Majesty
shall think fit Mr. Penn's bounds shall terminate,"
and Dongan's ideas as to this point favored Wyalus-
Of the men sent out in Dongan's time we do not
know the names. We have, however, the names of
two men who, on June 7, 1701, crossed the western
branch of the Unadilla River, then called Eghwagy
Creek. They were David Schuyler and Captain
Johannas Bleeker. They were not traders, but
delegates on their way from Albany to Onondaga
charged with counteracting French intrigues.
The next earliest names are those of German
settlers, who in large companies, on three occasions,
and perhaps four, passed down the valley on their
way to Pennsylvania. They formed part of that
large body of Palatines who have left so deep an im-
pression on the Mohawk and Schoharie countries.
They had originally left their homes on the Rhine in
consequence of the devastation attending the wars
of Louis XIV. In England they had met the five
Indian chiefs taken over by Mayor Schuyler, who
* Dr. Beauchamp's rendering of this word is Home of the Old
Warrior.
35
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
offered them land in America, and Queen Anne,
who had given them food and shelter, advanced the
money to pay their expenses across the sea.
Late in the year 1709, to the number of about
4,000, they set sail, and lived successively in New
York, Livingston Manor, and Schenectady, a hun-
dred and fifty families in 17 14 taking up lands at a
place called Weiserdorp, which is now known as
Middleburg, in Schoharie County. These families
were in a state of great poverty. One" borrowed a
horse here, another there ; also a cow and plow har-
ness," and during the first year they " made many
meals on the wild potatoes and ground beans that
grew in great abundance." A moving spirit among
them was the elder Conrad Weiser.
When trouble arose over titles to their Schoharie
lands, which were claimed by Robert Livingston
and others, a serious wrangle ensued, resulting in
the sending of a sheriff from New York to Weiser-
dorp, a village of forty huts, constructed of logs,
earth, and bark. A hostile reception awaited him,
one of the incidents of which was an attack by a mob
of women, led by Magdalene Zee (or Zeh), who car-
ried the sheriff some distance on a rail, broke his
ribs by pounding him with clubs, and otherwise did
violence to him, the full details of which the present
generation would not tolerate in print.
The Germans concluded to submit the matter to
the English sovereign, and three men, including
Weiser, were sent to London. While at sea, the
ship was attacked by pirates and Weiser " three
times tied up and floged, but would not confess to
having money." On arrival, they found that Queen
Anne had died and that news of their attack on the
sheriff had seriously prejudiced their case. One of
36
THE COMING OF WHITE MEN
Weiser's companions sailed for home in disgust and
died at sea, while Weiser and the other were arrested
and sent to prison — perhaps to the Tower, for
Brown says Weiser spent a year in that ancient cas-
tle. On being released the two men quarrelled.
Weiser's son says the trouble was they " both had
hard heads."
Dissatisfaction in Schoharie grew apace and finally
a general migration set in for Conestoga, Pa. The
route chosen was the Charlotte and Susquehanna
rivers. Thirty families are said by Rupp to have
gone down in the summer of 1723, " a few months
before Weiser's return." Some fifty others followed
in 1725 and in 1729 another company departed.
At the mouth of the Charlotte they built canoes
with which to make the remainder of the journey,
felling trees for the purpose. The tree-stumps were
long remembered by Susquehanna settlers for their
association with this migration. Twenty-five years
later when Sir William Johnson applied for a patent
he wished it to begin " where the Germans made
their canoes to go to Conestoga." Household goods
were transported in the canoes, and the horses and
cattle driven along the Indian trail. Brown says
deliberately that after reaching Conestoga, twelve
horses broke from their stable and wandered away.
A year and a half later ten of them were found at
Weiserdorp, three hundred miles from Conestoga.
The younger Conrad Weiser, who made this jour-
ney, says there was want of leadership. Each man
did as he pleased, " and their obstanacy has stood in
their way ever since." Young Weiser rose to con-
siderable eminence in Pennsylvania as an Indian
agent, and his services to the Government were so
important that Washington, standing at his grave
37
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
in 1793, remarked that these services had been ren-
dered in a difficult period and posterity would not
forget him.
The migration from Schoharie had an important
influence on the future population of Pennsylvania
and New York. Had these Palatines fared better in
Schoharie, it is not unlikely that the upper Susque-
hanna Valley would have been first peopled by that
race instead of the Scotch-Irish, but the Palatines
were not slow to inform their friends in the old
country of their experience in New York and to ad-
vise them to settle in Pennsylvania instead. Many
of the Palatines never left Schoharie however, and
many others remained to found thriving settlements
along the valley of the Mohawk, of which enduring
evidence survives in the geographical nomenclature.
From that pioneer stock came the central patriotic
figure in the battle of Oriskany — General Nicholas
Herkimer.
About 1722 young men sent out by Governor
Burnet had reached Oghwaga. Fifteen years later
the importance of the valley as a highway to the
South and West had become fully understood. In
1737 Cadwallader Colden, the Surveyor-General oi
the province, made an official report showing the
importance that he attributed to it. " Goods may
be carried," he said, " from this lake (Otsego) in bat-
toes or flat-bottom vessels through Pennsylvania to
Maryland and Virginia, the current of the river run-
ning everywhere easy without any cataracts in all
that long space." After describing the east and west
branches of the Susquehanna, he added that " by
either of these branches goods may be carried to the
mountains, and I am told that the passage through
the mountains to branches of the Mississippi which
38
THE COMING OF WHITE MEN
issue on the west side of these mountains is neither
long nor difficult, by which means inland navigation
may be had to the Bay of Mexico." Twenty-five
years later, at the close of the French War, Pouchot
described the Susquehanna as " navigable almost
from its source," and as " flowing through a beauti-
ful valley filled with very fine timber."
It was not until the time of Johnson's trade activ-
ity that men with large purposes were regularly
established on the river. Johnson's policy in send-
ing his agents to Oghwaga, which he preferred to
Oswego because of the absence of competition, re-
sulted in its own reward. He became the most suc-
cessful trader in the province.
Johnson was a native of Ireland and a nephew of
Sir Peter Warren, the owner of a large tract of land
at the mouth of the Schoharie Creek, in what is now
the town of Florida. Johnson had become War-
ren's agent, and had engaged in the fur trade on his
own account. Unlike the average trader of that
time, Johnson was honest and fair in his dealings.
Conspicuous for humanity, he won the regard of
the Indians very early, and he retained it through
life. He married a German wife, and soon found
himself on the road to great success as a man of
business. In 1739 he made plans for his trading
post at Oghwaga. From this place trained agents
were sent out along the net-work of trails, making
contracts with the Indians at their own door — a
method giving him vast advantage over the men
who did business with Indians at Albany and Sche-
nectady.
Albany had become very unpopular with the Ind-
ians. The younger Weiser records a conversation
he once had with an Onondaga chief named Canas-
39
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
satego. " You know our practice," said the chief;
" if a white man in travelling through our country
enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I do
you. We dry him, if he is wet ; we warm him if he
is cold ; and give him meat and drink that he may
allay his hunger and thirst, and we spread soft furs
for him to rest and sleep on. We demand nothing
in return. But if I go into a white man's house in
Albany and ask for victuals and drink, they say,
' where is your money ? ' and if I have none they
say, 'get out, you Indian dog.' "
There is no dearth of testimony to show that
Indians fared badly in bargains made at Albany.
Peter Kalm, an observing traveller, who visited
Albany in the middle of the eighteenth century, says,
" many persons have assured me that the Indians are
frequently cheated in disposing of their goods, es-
pecially when they are in liquor, and that sometimes
they do not get one-half or one-tenth of the value of
their goods. I have been witness to several transac-
tions of this kind." He refers to the " avarice and
selfishness of the inhabitants of Albany " as well
known. Few of the great fur traders have survived
with good reputations. Parkman says many of
them were " ruffians of the coarsest stamp, who vied
with each other in rapacity, violence, and profligacy."
They "cheated, cursed, and plundered the Indians
and outraged their families." Johnson was a very
conspicuous exception to this too general rule.
40
(From
portrait in the State Library, at Albany, that was copied from an original
owned by Sir John Johnson. )
PART II
Missionaries and the
French War
1650-1769
Jesuits and Church of
England Men
1650-1746
AFTER the first explorers, seeking to extend
the fur trade, came the Jesuits, interested in
promoting the spiritual welfare of the sav-
ages. The traders came from Fort Orange and New
Amsterdam, the missionaries from the ancient St.
Lawrence settlements of New France. Before 1650
these devoted men from the great northern valley
had arrived on territory now a part of New York
State, bringing with them stout and enterprising
souls. Morgan declares that the zeal and devotion
which they displayed are " unsurpassed in the his-
tory of Christianity." They " traversed the forests
of America alone and unprotected ; they dwelt in the
depths of the wilderness without shelter and almost
without raiment; they passed the ordeal of Indian
captivity and the fire of the torture ; they suffered
from hunger and violence, but in the midst of all
they never forgot the mission with which they were
intrusted."
Several of these men acquired distinction that has
made their labors a part of American history. Among
them were Isaac Jogues, Bruyar, Le Jeune, Brebeuf
and Gamier. Later came Peter Milet, who had
marked success with the Oneidas, among whom he
passed many years, securing a firm hold on their
devotion. While it is not unlikely that Jogues saw
43
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
some of the head-waters of the Susquehanna, for here
were Mohawk hunting grounds, it is more probable
that Jacques Bruyar actually came into that valley.
He lived many years alternately among the Oneidas,
Onondagas, and Mohawks, and was in the Iroquois
lands for more than thirty years before the eigh-
teenth century began. It was the fate of these mis-
sionaries to lead roving lives like the Indians whom
they sought to convert ; they adopted Indian dress
and names, and were often supposed to be Indians,
circumstances which must have taken more than one
of them on journeys along the Susquehanna trails.
Campbell says they often went with the Indians on
distant and hazardous expeditions, where they " as-
tonished their savage audiences with the splendor
and imposing rites and ceremonies of the Roman
Church."
The life of Father Jogues, better than perhaps
any other story, illustrates the truth of Morgan's
tribute. Made a captive by the Mohawks and
taken to their valley, he was forced to undergo the
terrible ordeal of running the gauntlet — " a narrow
road to Paradise," Jogues called it. His left thumb
was cut off by a woman who used a clam-shell for
the purpose. He was made to lie all night on his
back, with his feet and hands outstretched and tied
to stakes, and while in this position children were
allowed to place hot ashes and coals on his body.
He was led in triumph from village to village, and
in each was newly tortured. As he accompanied his
captors to their hunting grounds, " shivering and
half famished," says Parkman, " he followed them
through the chill November forest and shared their
wild bivouac in the depths of the wintry desolation."
Because he would not partake of meat, chosen as
44
JESUIT PRIESTS
an offering to one of their heathen divinities, he
" starved in the midst of plenty." At night, when
the savages made merry around their fire, he
" crouched in a corner of the hut, gnawed by hun-
ger and pierced to the bone with cold. He brought
them fire wood like a squaw ; he did their bidding
without a murmur and patiently bore their abuse."
Huron Indians, captives like himself, he converted.
Ears of unhusked corn wet with dew were thrown to
him for food, and with this dew he baptized his
converts. Parkman adds that in a remote and
lonely spot he " cut the bark in the form of a cross
from the trunk of a great tree, and here he made his
prayers."
Through the help of Corlear, a noble-hearted
Dutchman, and of Dominie Megapolensis, Father
Jogues finally escaped. He went to France, and
Anne of Austria, the Queen, summoned him to her
presence. This mother of Louis, the Sun King,
" kissed his mutilated hands, while ladies thronged
round to do him homage." Owing to his deformity
of body, caused by torture, Jogues was unable to say
mass. His case having been laid before the Pope, a
special dispensation restored to him the sacred and
cherished privilege. Father Jogues then returned
to Canada, and the Jesuits again sent him into the
Mohawk country, where he now met his fate. While
entering an Indian house, to which he had been in-
vited as a guest, he was barbarously murdered. The
scene of this tragedy was near the present town of
Auriersville. Parkman pronounces Jogues " one of
the purest examples of Roman Catholic virtue which
the western world has seen."
Another Jesuit, who became a captive, was Joseph
Bressani. In July, 1644, he wrote from the Iro-
45
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
quois country to the General of the Jesuits in
Rome : "I do not know if your Paternity will rec-
ognize the handwriting of one whom you once knew
very well. The letter is soiled and ill written ; be-
cause the writer has only one finger of his right hand
left entire, and cannot prevent the blood from his
wounds, which are still open, from staining the paper.
His ink is gun-powder mixed with water and his
table is the earth."
Jogues, Milet, Bruyar, and Bressani belonged to
an early and disinterested generation. Their eu-
logist, Parkman, shows that the Jesuits who came
in later times had not the same apostolic simplicity.
More properly they were the political agents of
France, with eyes on the affairs of two worlds. For
more than fifty years the English had to combat
their influence, and in doing so sought aid from
Protestant missionaries who really came to have an
important share in the great struggle between Latin
and Anglo-Saxon forces for supremacy.
First among Protestants in the Mohawk country
was Megapolensis, who, before closing his labors,
had learned the language, preached in it fluently,
and made many converts. He began his work at
Albany about 1642 and served six years. Megapo-
lensis says he preached also " in the neighbor-
hood," and the Indians had been pleased to hear he
intended going into " their own country and castles
(about three days' journey farther inland) when ac-
quainted with their language."
From the time of Megapolensis until Governor
Dongan came over, was a generation, and not until
Dongan's time was vigorous work undertaken. In
1687 Dongan asked the Indians not to "receive any
French priests any more, having sent for English
46
JESUIT PRIESTS
priests whom you can be supplied with all to con-
tent." In the same decade, in his request to the
Indians to arrest unauthorized Susquehanna traders,
Dongan made an exception in the case of "the
priests and one man with each or either of them."
Dongan, although a Romanist, was opposed to the
Jesuits, being an English Governor first, and a Ro-
manist afterward. He was the first English Govern-
or who interfered with the Jesuits, and he violated
his instructions in so doing. But he gave evidence
of that clear understanding of French intrigue and
its dangers which another Irishman, William John-
son, was to have a better opportunity of putting in-
to practice sixty years afterward.
Dongan desired James II. to send out five or six
priests to live at the Indian castles, since by this
means French priests " will be obliged to return to
Canada, whereby the French will be divested of
their pretences to the country and then we shall en-
joy that trade without any fear of its being diverted."
He proposed that three priests continually travel
from one Indian village to another. Though his
design did not fully succeed, he made some headway
with it. By 1687 he had successfully uprooted
some of the French missions. That his conduct was
statesmanlike, events that followed in the ensuing
struggle amply proved. A few years after his time
(in 1700) the Legislative Council of the province
took up the war Dongan had begun and passed " an
act against Jesuits and Popish priests."
One of the Protestants of Dongan's time was
Dr. Dellius, a Dutchman. He was among the Mo-
hawks before 1691, and baptized numbers of them.
For his services he was allowed $300 in 1693, w i tn
a further sum for an interpreter. At Schenectady
47
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
labored Bernardus Freeman, a Calvinist, who, in
1701, reported that out of one hundred Mohawks,
thirty-five were Christians. Mr. Freeman made a
translation into Mohawk of the Ten Command-
ments, the Athanasian Creed, and parts of the Prayer
Book. His version was printed in New York in
1 7 I S- r . ,
Work assumed a more systematic form in the
new century. A petition was forwarded to Lon-
don asking that ministers of the Church of Eng-
land be sent to "instruct the Indians and prevent
their being practised upon by the French priests
and Jesuits." Six clergymen were proposed, one
for each nation, with two young men to attend
them.
Four years later the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent out the Rev. Mr.
Smith and the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor, each of
whom was allowed ^"20 for his outfit and £100
as yearly salary, with X30, given by Queen Anne,
for his passage. Of Mr. Smith nothing more is
known, but Mr. Moor reached the field of his labors
among the Mohawks and remained three years.
He had little success and set sail for England, but
was never heard from again. He has been credited
with the authorship of the first book printed in the
Mohawk tongue, " Another Tongue brought in to
Confess the Great Saviour of the World," which
traders were expected to distribute. After Mr.
Moor, came Thomas Barclay, who remained from
1708 until 171 2, and has historic rank as the first
rector of St. Peter's Church in Albany.
When Queen Anne's war closed, in 17 12, the
Rev. William Andrews, who had already been in
the country and knew something of the Mohawk
48
CHURCH OF ENGLAND MEN
language, came over and spent three years among
the Mohawks and Oneidas. With money supplied
by Queen Anne, a fort one hundred and fifty feet
square was built at the Mohawk castle known after-
ward as Fort Hunter, with a block-house at each
corner and quarters for twenty men. The Indians
built a school-house thirty feet long and twelve wide,
and from distant places prepared to have children
sent for instruction. At one time Mr. Andrews
had twenty children at this school, between sixty
and seventy regular attendants at church, and when
all the Indians were at home, as many as one hun-
dred and fifty attendants, of whom thirty-eight were
communicants.
Andrews came out to teach the Oneidas as well as
the Mohawks, and bore as his credentials a letter
from the Archbishop of Canterbury. In going to
the Oneidas he passed over one hundred miles
" through a vast wilderness of woods " and along
a narrow Indian path. Wherever he labored the
great difficulty was to overcome the demoralizing
influence of hunting expeditions in which boys as
well as men engaged. Mr. Andrews complained
that nothing he did seemed to last. An evil influ-
ence was exerted by Dutch traders who falsely told
the Indians he would claim one-tenth of all they had.
He describes the Indians as a " sordid, mercenary,
beggardly people, having but little sense of religion,
honor or goodness among them ; living generally
filthy, brutish lives ; " and being of such " inhuman
savage natures " as to kill and eat each other.
" Heathen they are," he said, " and heathen they
will still be." Mr. Andrews returned in 1718.
At St. Peter's Church in Albany, has long been
preserved an interesting relic of his time — a set
49
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
of church plate given by Queen Anne in 171 2,
for use among the Onondagas, while at Fort
Hunter may be seen a stone rectory of the same
period.
Queen Anne's interest in the Indians dated from
the visit of several of their kings to London, in 1709-
10. They were taken over by Colonel Peter Schuy-
ler, Mayor of Albany, a man of fortune, public
spirit, and great influence among the Indians, who
knew him always as " Quidder," the nearest ap-
proach they could make to pronunciation of his
name. France at that time was making serious
inroads against the English in New York. A criti-
cal time had come in that century-long contest
between two civilizations for supremacy in the New
World. Colonel Schuyler made this visit at his own
expense in order to urge the English Government
to take more vigorous measures against the French.
Marked interest was shown in the Indians. They
became the lions of social and public life, and at
Court were received with all the honors of elaborate
ceremonial.
In 173 1 the Rev. John Miln, who, in 1728, had
become rector of St. Peter's, engaged to visit the
Mohawks four times a year and to remain five days
on each visit. He appointed the Rev. Henry Bar-
clay catechist at Fort Hunter. By 1 741, in two
towns Barclay had five hundred Indians under his
influence, of whom fifty-eight were communicants.
In 1743, only a few unbaptized ones remained.
Two years later war with France interfered with this
work. The French laid the frontier in ashes, took
one hundred prisoners, and the county of Albany,
that had been populous and flourishing, became a
scene of desolation. After the war closed, in 1746,
50
CHURCH OF ENGLAND MEN
the Rev. John Ogilvie, a graduate of Yale College,
who had studied theology under the Bishop of
London and became rector of St. Peter's in Albany
in 1750, went into the country, and labored there
periodically for many years " amid great discour-
agements and in the very outskirts of civilization."
An assistant in his work was the Rev. John Jacob
Oel, a Palatine, who remained until the Revolution
began. He was long settled at Canajoharie, but
labored also among the Oneidas and Tuscaroras,
many of whom he baptized. Mr. Oel in the Sus-
quehanna Valley found rivals in the Non-conformists
from New England, against whom he made com-
plaints.*
After Mr. Ogilvie, came to St. Peter's the Rev.
Henry Munro, who labored among the Mohawks
until 1770, when his missionary duties were trans-
ferred to a resident clergyman, the Rev. John
Stuart, of whom more will be read in a later chap-
ter of this work. Just at the close of Mr. Munro's
labors he dedicated at Canajoharie the chapel for
the Indians, which Sir William Johnson erected
there and which still stands.
* Brown refers to a place " called by the Indians Awquawge (Ogh-
waga) where the first Gospel was taught unto the Indians, by one Elisha
Gan." He gives no date however.
S>
II
Missionaries from
New England
I745-J748
AFTER the Church of England missionaries
came the Non-conformists. First on the
list in influence on the Susquehanna Valley
is the Rev. John Sergeant, who, at Stockbridge,
Mass., in 1736, had founded an Indian mission
with Timothy Woodbridge serving as conductor ot
a school for Indian boys. Sergeant had been en-
gaged by the Boston Commissioners of the Society
in Scotland for Propagating the Gospel, and during
fourteen years had given much faithful devotion
to the cause. He not only taught Indians in and
near Stockbridge but went elsewhere seeking fields
of labor. On one of these tours, made in 1744, he
visited the Susquehanna Valley. He was in a sense
the pioneer New England missionary in this field.
In the neighboring town of Northampton, then
lived Jonathan Edwards, who had shown much
interest in the Indians, several of whom he had
taught. No man more than he had encouraged the
noble and successful David Brainerd in his work on
the frontier of New York, New Jersey, and Penn-
sylvania between the years 1744 and 1747. Brain-
erd's labors in the main were on the Delaware near
the site of Easton, but he labored also on the Sus-
quehanna in Pennsylvania. In 1745 he appears to
have gone to Oghwaga, since he preached on the
5 2
NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARIES
Susquehanna to Indians whom he had known at
Stockbridge.
In those days, at Edwards's house lived the Rev.
Elihu Spencer. Brainerd, while in Boston in the
very last stages of consumption, recommended Spen-
cer to the Commissioners, who wished to settle a
missionary in the upper Susquehanna Valley. Al-
most the last letters Brainerd wrote related to Spen-
cer's coming. In 1748, just after Brainerd breathed
his last, Spencer set out on his journey. Thus we
have Sergeant, Brainerd, and Spencer as the forerun-
ners of that numerous company who in the succeed-
ing twenty-five years made these lands the scene of
busy endeavors.
For the coming of these men credit belongs to
Sir William Johnson. As early as Henry Barclay's
time, Oghwaga had become a centre of English in-
fluence. Near Fort Hunter, where Barclay had his
post, Johnson was then living, and in 1746, when
war with France began anew, Johnson opened com-
munication with the Indians at Oghwaga, secured
their friendship, and sent them belts. To a council
in Albany he was able at this time to summon sixty
Oghwaga warriors, " with the usual train of old men,
women and children," who came up in charge of
Captain Vrooman and Captain Staats. The warriors
said they knew several roads to Canada, and wished
" to see the hatchet that we may grasp it." Four-
teen of them were at once despatched against the
enemy in a company of sixty men.
When Mr. Spencer arrived in 1748, he therefore
came to a savage people who were not strangers to
English influence, religious, as well as political and
military. He was a young man of twenty-seven, a
graduate of Yale, and from Brainerd had learned
S3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
some of the rudiments of the Indian language. In
1748 he had been ordained, and in September, the
war with France having come to a temporary close,
went to Oghwaga. He remained until spring, and
became very much interested in his work, although
he had limited success. He made slow progress
with the language. " Though I was very desirous
of learning the Indian tongue," he afterward said,
" yet through my short residence at Ononghquage
and the surly disposition of my interpreter, I con-
fess my proficiency was not great." But he ac-
quired enough knowledge to enable him to make a
translation of the Lord's Prayer. It is as follows:
Soungwauneha, caurounkyawga, tehseetaroan, sauhsone-
yousta, esa, sawaneyou, okettauhsela, ehneauwoung, na, cau-
rounkyawga, niighwonshauga, neattewehnesalauga, tauguaunau-
toronoantougsick, toantaugweleewheyoustaung, cheneeyeut,
chaquatautehwheyoustaunna, toughsau, taugwaussareneh, tau-
autoltenaugaloughtoungga, nasawne, sacheautaugwass, coan-
tehsalohaunzaickaw, esa, sawaunneyou, esa, sashautzta, esa,
soungwasoung, chenneauhaungwa, auwen.
Among Spencer's converts were two Indians who
long remained faithful allies and assistants to the
missionaries who followed him to Oghwaga — Peter
Agwrondougwas, known as " Good Peter," and
Isaac Dakayenensese. Peter was the chief of the
Oneidas, and had been born on the Susquehanna.
His greatest gift was oratory, in which he had no
superior in his time among the Iroquois.
From the correspondence of Edwards it appears
that Spencer " went through many difficulties and
hardships, with little or no success." His interpre-
ter was " a woman that had formerly been a captive
among the Caughnauwaga Indians in Canada, who
54
NEW ENGLAND MISSIONARIES
speak the same language with those Oneidas, except
with some small variation of dialect." Edwards
explains further in regard to the interpreter, who
was Mrs. Benjamin Ashley :
She went with her husband, an Englishman, and is one
of the people we here call Separatists ; who showed the
spirit he was of there in that wilderness beyond what we
knew before. He differed with and opposed Mr. Spencer
in his measures and had an ill influence on his wife who, I
fear, was very unfaithful, refusing to interpret for Mr.
Spencer more than one discourse in a week, a sermon upon
the Sabbath, and utterly declined assisting him in discourses
and conversations in the week-time. And her interpreta-
tions on the Sabbath were performed very unfaithfully, as at
last appeared.
Spencer's short residence at Oghwaga was fol-
lowed five years later by a missionary expedition,
which is better known, and has often through mis-
take been accepted as the earliest of such enter-
prises in this valley — the one led by Gideon Haw-
ley and Timothy Woodbridge. That Spencer had
no share in it is explained by the fact that in the
meantime he had left New England and become set-
tled as pastor over a Presbyterian church in Eliza-
beth, N. J. He was afterward settled in Jamaica,
L. I., and finally in Trenton, where he remained
from 1769 until 1784, the year of his death. From
1752 until his death, he was a guardian of Princeton
College. He was a facile extempore speaker, and
his talents in that direction earned for him the famil-
iar appellation of " ready money Spencer." His
native place was East Haddam, Conn., and he was
a brother of General Spencer of the Revolution.
55
Ill
Gideon Hawley's Coming
1753
WITH the close of the war in 1748, mis-
sionary work at Stockbridge was taken up
with new vigor. In Timothy Wood-
bridge's school, in the following year, were fifty-
five students, including several from Oghwaga.
At the same time a school for Mohawks was in
charge of Captain Kellogg, with Kellogg's sister,
Mrs. Ashley, serving as interpreter. In 1750 some
twenty Mohawks had arrived, and in 1751 about
twenty more, including the celebrated King Hen-
drick, who a few years later was killed in the battle
of Lake George.
In 1749 the mission at Stockbridge lost its leader
by the death of Sergeant. Edwards was chosen to
succeed him, but this was not until 1 75 1 . The
mission then contained 218 Indians, of whom 182
had been baptized, and 42 were communicants.
Edwards, in the year of his appointment, attended
the great Indian council which met in Albany.
Here he learned how concerned the English had
become in regard to the growth of French influence.
The younger Conrad Weiser had heard at Onon-
daga that a Jesuit had converted one hundred men
and taken them to Montreal, where they received as
presents gorgeous coats and hats ornamented with
silver and gold. Sir Peter Warren, Johnson's
uncle, then one of the leading men on Manhattan
56
GIDEON HAWLEY'S COMING
Island, gave the Stockbridge school $3,500, and
Johnson had been directed to use his influence to
aid it all he could.
After Edwards's return from Albany, Gideon
Hawley arrived at Stockbridge and was placed in
charge of one of the schools. Woodbridge, who
had known Brainerd intimately, and had now been
ten years at Stockbridge, had the other. Both
teachers were popular with the Indians, and espe-
cially with the Mohawks and Oneidas ; but a resi-
dent trustee, in his ambition to divert society funds
from the proper channels, seriously impaired the
usefulness of the school, and the Indians, becoming
dissatisfied, resolved to return to New York. Some
of these Indians had gone to Stockbridge from
Oghwaga after Spencer's return, having " mani-
fested a thirst for Christian knowledge." One was
named Jonah and another Sharrack.
In these circumstances it was decided that Haw-
ley and Woodbridge should themselves go to Ogh-
waga, at which place Edwards told the Boston Com-
missioners the hope for successful work mainly lay.
The chief seat of missionary operations was to be
" the country about Oghwaga near the head of the
Susquehanna river." Edwards wrote further:
All but one or two of them are of the nation of the
Oneidas and they appear not to be looked upon as con-
temptible by the rest of the Five Nations : * from what was
openly said of them at a public council by the sachems of
the Mohawks who advised us to treat the Oghwagas with
care and kindness as excelling their own tribe in religion
and virtue, giving at the same time many instances of their
virtue. Oghwaga is within the territory of the Six Nations
* The Iroquois were now the Six Nations, the Tuscaroras having
entered the League thirty years before Edwards wrote.
57
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
and not so far from the other settlements but that it may
be convenient for making excursions to the other tribes : as
convenient perhaps as any place that can be found. It lies
in a pleasant, fruitful country, surrounded by many settle-
ments of Indians on every side and where the way is open
by easy passage down the river which runs through one of
the most pleasant and fruitful parts of America for four
hundred or five hundred miles, exceedingly well peopled on
both sides and on its several branches by Indians. Ogh-
waga is on the road by which several of the nations pass as
they go to war with Southern nations. There are several
towns of the Oneidas and several missionaries might prob-
ably find sufficient employment in those parts.
Hawley finally departed on his mission, in May,
1753. He left Stockbridge in company with
Woodbridge, Ashley, and Mrs. Ashley, the latter
destined soon to die at the mission. Hawley says
Ashley was taken along from necessity, but he
proved to be " a fanatic and on that account unfit
to be employed in the mission." They were to go
" about one hundred miles beyond any settlement
of Christian people." Before leaving the Mohawk
Valley, introduced probably by Edwards, they " at
sunset," says Hawley, " were politely received at
Colonel Johnson's gate by himself in person. Here
we lodged. It was favorable to our mission to have
his patronage which I never lost." Here also they
met several Indians who lived at Oghwaga, and
Hawley mentions two ministers who were settled
near Johnson's house, one of whom, a Calvinist,
seems to have been the Rev. William Johnston who
afterward founded the settlement at Sidney.
From the Schoharie country the expedition
crossed the hills to the Susquehanna, having ob-
tained, besides a man with a horse to carry two sacks
58
GIDEON HAWLEY'S COMING
of flour, three or four " blacks " to accompany them*
They also had a " fellow named Pallas, a vagrant
Indian, whose company we had reason to regret but
could not refuse upon our mission." Hawley says
the road " was generally obstructed by fallen trees,
old logs, miry places, pointed rock and entangling
roots." They were " alternately on the ridge of a
lofty mountain and in the depths of the valley."
Finally they came to rivulets which poured their
waters into the Susquehanna. By one of these they
halted, kindled a fire, made their prayers, and passed
the night sleeping on the bare earth rolled up in
blankets. Late on the following day they reached
Towanoendalough, where was a village of " three
wigwams and about thirty souls." Here the Sus-
quehanna was first seen, and its size disappointed
them, as well it might, since here the stream is
scarcely more than a creek. They lodged in " a
little store house set on crotches six feet or more
from the ground." *
At Towanoendalough the party were joined by a
trader named George Winedecker and a companion,
who had come down from Otsego Lake with a boat-
load of goods, including rum, and were bound for
Oghwaga and the intermediate Indian villages. The
ill effects of Winedecker's rum were soon to be seen.
During the night spent at Towanoendalough the
party were awakened by the " howling of the Ind-
ians over their dead," and in the morning saw
Indian women "skulking in the adjacent bushes for
* As Hawley had an Indian guide, we may assume that he followed one
of the trails which ran into the Susquehanna from the Schoharie Valley.
Thus he might have crossed over to the upper waters of the Charlotte, as
the Palatines had done twenty years before, or proceeded to the head of
Schenevus Creek, descending which he would have reached the river
near Colliers, following the present course of the railroad.
59
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
fear of the intoxicated Indians who were drinking
deeper." These women were carefully hiding guns,
hatchets, and other dangerous weapons.
From this point to Oghwaga was a journey of
three days, " and how bad the travelling is we can-
not tell," said Hawley. " Some went by water and
others by land with the horses. I went with the
land party." In Winedecker's boat went Wood-
bridge and the interpreter, and in a canoe purchased
at this place were sent the provisions and baggage.
The half-intoxicated Indians "pursued the party by
water in which was Mr. Woodbridge and the party
by land. One came so near us with a club as to
strike at us and he hit one of our horses." At
Wauteghe they found fruit-trees and a tract of
cleared land extending along the river, but there
were no inhabitants to be seen. Hawley had a
narrow escape from death at the hands of Pallas,
who was handling a loaded gun when in liquor.
Pallas was aiming to shoot some ducks and fired
very close to Hawley. Hawley was always inclined
to think Pallas intended to kill him. This incident
occurred twelve miles below Wauteghe, " where a
small stream empties into the river." The horses
were turned out to graze for the night, but by
morning three or four of them had returned to
Wauteghe.
On the following day, when the horses had been
recovered, the party proceeded six or eight miles
farther, and stopped at Kaghneantasis or the
whirlpool, " because there was herbage for our
horses." Next day they arrived at Unadilla, and
about noon passed " a considerable village, some
families of which were of the Houssautunnuk Ind-
ians." As it was Sunday, Winedecker was not
60
GIDEON HAWLEY'S COMING
permitted to land. The Indians "stood on the
banks and beheld us." Pallas was sent ashore at
this point and his services dispensed with. From
the Northwest, says Hawley, " a stream here rolls
into Susquehanna." Its name was " Teyonadel-
hough." They landed five or six miles farther
down and put up for the night. Oghwaga moun-
tain was sighted the next day, and then Hawley
knew his journey was nearly ended. He arrived
near nightfall, the weather cold and wet. A cordial
welcome came from the Indians, but the accommo-
dations for living were rude and unwholesome.
On the following day, June 5th, " many were
worse for the rum that came with us," and one of
the horses injured an Indian boy. The Indians
became enraged at this and made threats against the
whole party, but in the afternoon " came chiefs of
the Oghwagas and assured us that these insulting
and ill-behaved Indians did not belong to them,
but were foreigners." These chiefs had come up
from the lower settlement. Hawley says he opened
a treaty with the chiefs " upon the affairs of our ad-
vent and the importance of our business in every
way."
All in all, it was a singular expedition that went
to Oghwaga, this mixed band of missionaries, trad-
ers, and Indians. Here were red men who had ex-
pressed a desire for religious teaching ; here were
red men with a fatal fondness for strong drink, and
here, in one party journeying down the valley, were
missionaries with the Bible and a trader with the
rum — the two gifts of the white man to the Indian.
It soon became apparent that the work at Oghwaga
which needed attention first was the red man's fond-
ness for fire-water. Woodbridge, a few weeks later,
61
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
returned to Albany and carried with him a speech
which the Indians had desired him to present to
William Johnson. In part it is as follows, and its
pathos cannot escape the reader:
My brother Col. Johnson, hear me now. We are
both nations together under one head at Oghwaga. My
brother Warraghiyagey,* here we are assembled under one
head. I say, hear me now. The Governor and great men
have took pity on us and come so far to bring us to light
and religion that we may go straight. My brother, my
dear brother, pity us : your batteau is often here at our
place and brings us rum and that has undone us. Some-
times on Sunday our people drink and cannot attend their
duty, which makes it extremely difficult. But now we
have cut it off: we have put a stop to it.
You must not think one man or a few men have done
it; we all of us both old and young have done it. It is
done by the whole. My brother, I would have you tell
the great men at Albany, Schenectady and Schoharie not to
bring us any more rum. I would have you bring us pow-
der, lead and clothing which we want and other things
what you please ; only do not bring us any more liquors.
*The name by which the Indians called Johnson after they had
adopted him.
62
IV
War Interrupts Mr.
Hawley's Work
1756
MR. HAWLEY had not been long at
Oghwaga when a new conflict arose with
the French. Johnson in 1751 had made
striking headway in his efforts to cement the Indian
attachment, but in 1754 so grave was the outlook,
that another and greater council, in reality a con-
gress, was called at Albany, to which were invited
delegates from all the colonies in America. Stone
calls this " the most august assembly which up to
that time had ever been held in the western world."
Its primary object was to make still stronger the
alliance with the Six Nations, but in American his-
tory it has other rank and eminence. At this con-
gress was brought to official attention the famous
Plan of Union, mainly drawn up by Franklin, which
in an organic sense marks the beginning of the his-
tory of the United States. John Bigelow has char-
acterized it as " the first coherent scheme ever pro-
pounded for securing a permanent federal union of
the thirteen colonies."
England rejected the plan because of its democratic
features, and the colonies because it had too much
regard for the royal prerogative. Acceptance of it
would unquestionably have saved both lands a world
of direst trouble, but the name of Washington
6 3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
scarcely could have been known to history. At
this congress Gouldsborough Banyar, the Deputy
Secretary of the Council of the Province, who after-
ward had large landed possessions in the Susque-
hanna Valley, acted as one of the secretaries, and
Martin Kellogg was an interpreter, in which capac-
ity Kellogg also saw service at Oghwaga. Indians
from Oghwaga were present.
Hawley early realized the risk that attended his
stay in the valley, but he remained at his post more
than a year longer. Not until war was actually in
progress did he depart. A son of Jonathan Ed-
wards, Jonathan, Jr., then only ten years old, who, at
his father's desire, had spent six months with Haw-
ley, learning the Oneida tongue, was, however, sent
home. For a part of the distance an Indian car-
ried the boy on his back.
Thirty years afterward, when this boy had become
President of Union College, he published a book on
Indian languages, in which he referred to his expe-
rience among the Indians. When he was six years
of age his father had removed with his family to
Stockbridge, which at that time was inhabited by
Indians almost solely. Indians being the nearest
neighbors, he " constantly associated with them ;
their boys were my daily schoolmates and play-
fellows. Out of my father's house I seldom heard
any language spoken besides the Indian. By these
means I acquired knowledge of that language and a
great facility in speaking it. It became more famil-
iar to me than my native tongue. I knew the names
of some things in Indian which I did not know in
English: even all my thoughts ran in Indian."
In December, 1755, Indians came to Oghwaga
with accounts of discontent in Pennsylvania as a re-
64
WAR INTERRUPTS MR. HAWLEY
suit of the defeat of Braddock. Hawley at once
communicated the facts to Johnson, with a strong
recommendation that a fort be erected at Oghwaga,
the one already existing at Cherry Valley being too
far distant from the point of danger. The discon-
tented Indians were Delawares, who, some years
before, had left their own river and settled at
Wyoming. By the defeat of Braddock they had
lost faith in the strength of the English, and under
French influence had threatened to desolate the whole
Pennsylvania frontier. In Northampton County
fifty houses had been burned and over one hundred
persons murdered and taken into captivity. Virginia
settlements had also suffered. Early in the year
1756 the Delawares started northward.
By May so many had departed that from Shamo-
kin to Wyalusing, Mr. Kulp says, "there reigned
the silence of the grave." Jonathan Edwards, hear-
ing of these events, wrote that " there is great dan-
ger that Mr. Hawley's mission and ministry there
will be entirely broken up." Some friendly Del-
awares arrived at Johnstown during this season,
with word that one hundred others were on their
way from Oghwaga in want of food. Johnson at
once sent word to John Wells, of Cherry Valley,
whom a Tory was afterward to murder during the
Revolution, and to Robert Flint to supply them with
all that they needed. In August a young sachem
named Thomas arrived from Oghwaga with fifty-
four men, women, and children, and said he was
ready to go to war. John Wells, from plans pre-
pared in Albany, built the fort Hawley had recom-
mended, and Hawley retired from his mission. The
fort stood about a mile and a half above Windsor
village, on the east side of the river.
65
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Proceeding to Johnstown, Hawley attended an
Indian council, and then served as an army chaplain
in an expedition from Albany to Crown Point.
Johnson himself in the following year commanded
the English forces at the battle of Lake George, of
which, through his victory, he became the hero.
Wounded in the battle, he remained a cripple for
the rest of his life. England granted him the sum
of $25,000, and the King made him a baronet.
Hawley attempted to return to his work at Ogh-
waga, but the enterprise proved to be " too hazard-
ous to be prosecuted." He went as far as Cherry
Valley in December, 1756, "but could not safely
penetrate into the wilderness, my mission being
nearly one hundred miles beyond any plantation of
whites." In the following spring he received a let-
ter from Johnson, " which the Indians desired him
to write me," inviting him back to his mission, and
again started to return. He got as far as Albany
but had trouble to find a companion, and when the
small-pox broke out, definitely abandoned the un-
dertaking.
Had Hawley reached Oghwaga, his work could
not have prospered. In October of this year chiefs
wrote to Johnson that they had news " of a company
of about thirty men being at Cheningo,* going to
war against our brethren, the English." Two men
had been sent down to warn them off, but " in spite
of all that we and our brethren, the Nanticokes,
could do, they marched along until we met them a
second time when, after a long council, they turned
back but nine." The chiefs begged Johnson " to
* In the Oneida dialect written Ochenang, and meaning bull thistles.
The place was afterward called Chenango Point, and is now Bingham-
ton.
66
WAR INTERRUPTS MR. HAWLEY
be strong brother and not keep this news private, but
to give notice to all the towns."
Information had also reached them of "another
great company not far from Tioga, coming the same
way, mixed with French, and will be here in a few
days." It was after such correspondence, joined to
his experience in the war, that Johnson, in 1757,
wrote concerning the Oghwagas and others on the
upper Susquehanna : " They have always, and dur-
ing this war constantly, shown themselves firmly at-
tached to our interests, and no Indians have been
more ready to come and join his Majesty's arms."
He added that they were " a flourishing and increas-
ing people," and were determined " to live and die
with us."
In November of this year fell a blow which sent
consternation through the frontier — the massacre
and burning of German Flatts. So great was the
terror, that at Cherry Valley and other places set-
tlers sent their goods and valuables to Albany and
Schenectady. Stone remarks that at one time it
seemed " as if these settlements would be entirely
depopulated."
Indeed the whole course of that final struggle with
France created a state of alarm on this frontier, ren-
dered all the more intense by the attitude of the
four western Iroquois nations. The defeat of Brad-
dock had weakened, if not actually broken, their
allegiance to the English. Tryon County put eight
hundred men into the field, one company being sta-
tioned at Cherry Valley in command of Captain
Robert McKean of whom in the Border Wars there
will be more to chronicle in this history.
In these gloomy circumstances the labors of Gid-
eon Hawley in this valley closed. His work had
67
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
in no small way been fruitful. Among his aids had
been the two " pious Indians," named Isaac Dakay-
enensese and Peter Agwrondougwas, whom Spen-
cer had converted. After Hawley's departure Peter
carried on the missionary work alone, preaching at
Oghwaga, and making journeys to other villages.
In 1792 John Trumbull painted a miniature of
Peter that may still be seen in Yale University.
After Mr. Hawley's failure to return, Peter made a
journey to Lebanon in midwinter, through deep
snows, to ask for a new minister. Mr. Hawley con-
tinued his labors among Indians elsewhere. In
1758 he was settled over some tribes at Leicester,
Conn., and later over others in Massachusetts, where
he spent nearly half a century "in the most bene-
ficient and self-denying labors for the salvation of
his Indian brethren." He died in 1807 at the age
of eighty. He was a native of Bridgeport and a
graduate of Yale.
68
New Men at Oghwaga
1762-1763
AFTER the fall of Quebec, when tne English
became masters of North America east of
the Mississippi and north of Florida, other
missionaries took up Hawley's work. The Rev.
Eli Forbes went down in June, 1762, having with
him the Rev. Asaph Rice and an interpreter named
Gunn, who is, perhaps, the missionary referred to by
Brown as Gan. They went by the Mohawk to
Canajoharie,* and thence to Cherry Valley, follow-
ing the river to Oghwaga, now a town of three hun-
dred inhabitants, chiefly Oneidas. Here they found
Good Peter, and so impressed was Forbes with his
character and work that he described him as the
equal of any Englishman he knew in his Christian
virtues and abilities. With their arrival we have a
new chapter to chronicle in the missionary history
of this valley.
In addition to the Stockbridge school, New Eng-
land in those times possessed an institution for
Indian boys at Lebanon, where, in 1743 — five years
before Spencer came down to Oghwaga — the Rev.
Dr. Eleazer Wheelock had begun to teach Samson
Occum. In 1759 Occum became an ordained min-
ister, and then in 1761 went among the Oneidas as
a missionary, with a letter from Johnson. He was
* Meaning The Pot That Washes Itself, a reference to the circular
gorge in the creek near its mouth.
69
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
sent out by the Boston commissioners, and perhaps
visited Oghwaga. Dr. Wheelock's success with
this Indian and others — and Occum rose to con-
siderable repute afterward as a preacher — induced
him to receive Indian children from New York, and
as reports from Mr. Hawley at Oghwaga reached
him, his hopes and plans for the civilization of the
red man assumed large proportions. He gained
the ear of Johnson as well as his confidence through
having as one of his students a youth who was af-
terward to write his name large in the history of this
frontier — Joseph Brant. Dr. Wheelock's school fi-
nally aroused the interest of nearly all the Colonial
officials in America, who recommended it to their
friends in England as " one of the noblest and most
worthy objects of their Christian beneficence." The
Rev. C. J. Smith was sent to England to solicit aid,
and in time a total of about $47,500 was secured
for the enterprise, the King heading the list with
$ 1 ,000.
Dr. Wheelock desired to secure a tract of land
for an Indian educational institution, and many let-
ters from him to Johnson have been preserved.
His experience and his information had made him
confident that a great work could be done among
the Six Nations. Johnson, in 1763, wrote that the
Oghwaga, Mohawk, Schoharie, and Canada Indians
were "determined to live and die with the English,"
and that this was " due in great measure to the little
knowledge they have acquired of our religion which
I heartily wish was more known to them and the
rest." In the same year Dr. Wheelock proposed
that " a tract of land, fifteen or twenty miles square,
or four townships, on the west bank of the Sus-
quehanna river be given to form an Indian school."
70
NEW MEN AT OGHWAGA
To this scheme Johnson was not favorably disposed ;
he thought the education of Indians could be best
carried on in places remote from Indian influence —
a view to which, after some further experience, Dr.
Wheelock came round.
Dr. Wheelock then proposed that something be
done in the Wyoming country, where, he wrote," I
understand some of our people are about to settle
on a new purchase on the Susquehanna : if it does
not disoblige and prejudice the Indians, I should
be glad, and it may be if that settlement should go
on, a door may be open for my design on that
purchase." Sir William said in reply that it would
be " highly improper to attempt any settlement in
their country as they (the Indians) are greatly dis-
gusted at the great thirst which we all seem to show
for their lands, and therefore I must give it as my
opinion that any settlement on the Susquehanna
may prove fatal to those who should attempt to
establish themselves thereon, as the Indians have
all declared, not only their greatest aversion there-
to, but have all threatened to prevent such settle-
ment." About this time Johnson wrote to the
Lords of Trade that some of the missionaries had
too often used their influence to get lands, and the
Mohawks had lately told him " they apprehended
the reason they had not clergy as formerly amongst
them was because they had no more lands to spare."
Dr. Wheelock at one period unquestionably had
great faith in the possibility of elevating the red
men. In 1762 he said that for several years faith-
ful men had been at work in Oghwaga. " The
Indians are in some measure civilized," he wrote,
" some of them baptised, a number of them, in a
judgment of charity, real Christians." They had a
7i
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
sachem who was " a man of understanding " and
" entirely friendly to the design of a school." Dr.
Wheelock thought there was opportunity for one
hundred missionaries and as many interpreters on
the Susquehanna and elsewhere. In the following
year he reported that Samuel Ashpo (or Ashbow)
had spent six weeks at Jeningo, " from which he
was obliged to retreat on account of a rupture be-
tween the Indians and the English." This referred
to the conspiracy of Pontiac. In March, 1763,
Forbes and Rice went to Oghwaga. They gathered
a church and set up two schools, one for adults and
one for children. In September Forbes returned
to Lebanon, taking with him four Indian boys, one
of whom was eventually graduated from Dr. Wheel-
ock's school.
72
VI
Pontiac's War and After It
1763-1768
MR. RICE remained at his post until, per-
haps, the end of the summer of 1763; but
not longer. In the Far West had now
been organized the conspiracy led by Pontiac. Pon-
tiac had fought with the French against Braddock,
and, with the French cause now lost, aspired on his
own account to wrest vengeance from the English.
His conspiracy was the last remnant of a European
struggle in America, extending over more than three
quarters of a century. Ultimately it failed, but not
until almost every white man had been driven from
the Ohio Valley, and a,ooo men on the western
frontier had lost their lives.
To this uprising and its influence on the Six
Nations was due Johnson's German Flatts confer-
ence of September, 1763, to which came two hun-
dred and seventy Indians from the Susquehanna
villages. The Indians said they desired to renew the
covenant chain, and declared that all their brethren
on the river, as far down as Owego, were " friends
and determined to remain so." Hostile Indians
reached Oghwaga in the same season, their purpose
being either to win over the Six Nations to Pontiac
or to renew the warfare on the English settlements.
By some of them Isaac Hollister, a Connecticut
settler, had been taken prisoner in the Wyoming
Valley and carried " up the Susquehanna about one
hundred and fifty miles."
73
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
So serious became the danger, that Johnson, in
February, 1764, sent out an expedition under orders
to capture all hostile Indians found on the river.
It comprised two hundred men, mostly Indians.
Near " the main branch of the Susquehanna " the
enemy were heard from, as encamped a short dis-
tance away, and already on the road against the
settlements. At daybreak Johnson's men rushed
upon the Delawares, took them by surprise, and
made prisoners of the whole party, forty-one in
number, including their chief, Captain Bull, a son
of Teedyuscung,* " who had discovered great in-
veteracy against the English and led several par-
ties against them during the present Indian war."
When the expedition set out, Johnson had offered
rewards of $50 for the heads of two Delawares
named Long Coat and Onaperaquedra. The whole
party of captives were taken over to the Mohawk
Valley, and thirteen of them were sent to New
York, where they were lodged in the common jail,
after having been much observed by the people of
that city, who are described as admiring their sullen
and ferocious countenances.
In March, shortly after this success, another ex-
pedition, in which a share was taken by Joseph
Brant, was sent down. Brant had already seen ser-
vice in war. Besides taking part in the siege of
Fort Niagara in 1759, where he conducted himself,
according to Stone,f with " distinguished bravery,"
* Teedyuscung was a noted chief of the Delaware nation. Although he
had been converted by the Moravians, he could never resist the tempta-
tion to follow other Indians on the war-path, his sympathies being with
the French. Having incurred the hostility of the Six Nations in 1763,
a party of their warriors set fire to his house and caused him to perish in
its flames.
t William L. Stone was born in Ulster County in 1792, and died at
Saratoga in 1844. At the age of seventeen he was a journeyman printer
74
PONTIAC'S WAR AND AFTER IT
he had been in the battle of Lake George. He was
then a boy of thirteen, and, according to his own
account, " was seized with such a tremor when the
firing began that he was obliged to take hold of a
small sapling to steady himself."
This expedition to the Susquehanna comprised
one hundred and forty Indians and a few whites,
the latter having for leader Captain Andrew Mon-
tour, a half-breed interpreter and frontiersman,
whose mother was the more celebrated interpreter,
Madam Montour. It reached Oghwaga before the
close of March, and on April ist departed down the
river, first calling at Kanhaughton, a town which
had been abandoned, and containing thirty-six good
houses of squared logs and stone chimneys. It
was now burned. Montour proceeded up " the
Cayuga branch " and destroyed another town of
twenty houses, besides four smaller villages. He
afterward burned Kanestio, which had sixty houses,
and from which he took away horses, corn, and
implements.
When Captain Montour returned to the Mo-
hawk Valley, with report of his success, Johnson
decided to send his son Sir John to Oghwaga with
a body of Indians and a small select corps of whites,
" to take advantage of the consternation the enemy
were thrown into." Sir John followed the river
in the office of the Cooperstown Federalist, and in 1813 editor of the
Herkimer American, where he had Thurlow Weed for a printer. He
became in 1 821 an owner of the New York Commercial Advertiser, of
which he was thenceforth editor until his death, becoming in 1840 one
of the many editors whom Fenimore Cooper sued for libel. Stone's
Life of Brant was published in 1838 and went through many editions,
one of which appeared in Cooperstown from the Phinney house, and the
eighth being issued in Buffalo. In 1865 his son brought out a new edi-
tion with an index. Stone wrote other books, but none in repute equal
to this, the noblest tribute ever paid by a white man to an Indian's
memory.
75
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
route, and his force had been fitted out with some
liberality of display in order to impress the Indians.
He made a few prisoners and then returned.
Tranquillity having been restored, two mission-
aries from Lebanon were allowed to leave the Mo-
hawk Valley late in the summer. At Oghwaga they
gathered a church of fourteen members. They were
graduates of Yale, one of them C. J. Smith, the other
Theophilus Chamberlain. On leaving Lebanon
they had originally been accompanied by eight Ind-
ian boys, one of them Brant, who for a time acted
as interpreter for Smith ; but Pontiac's War, as we
have seen, soon took Brant into the field, where,
says Dr. Wheelock, he " behaved so much like a
Christian and a soldier that he gained great esteem."
When that war closed, Brant's house at Canajoha-
rie was described as an asylum for missionaries.
The route to the stations was a direct one by way
of Bowman's Creek and Cherry Valley.
With the coming of winter, famine was threat-
ened in the valley. The food-supply had been ex-
hausted in consequence of the war, and the mission
was removed to Otsego Lake. Here was opened a
small school, into which was put as teacher a Mo-
hawk boy, educated at Lebanon, named Moses.
One of the missionaries, the Rev. C. J. Smith, sent
to Mr. Wheelock the following report of the
school :
I am every day diverted and pleased with a view of
Moses and his school, as I can sit in my study and see him
and all his scholars at any time, the school-house being noth-
ing but an open barrack. And I am much pleased to see
eight or ten and sometimes more scholars sitting under their
bark table, some reading, some writing and others a study-
ing, and all engaged to appearances with as much serious-
7 6
PONTIAC'S WAR AND AFTER IT
ness and attention as you will see in almost any worshipping
assembly and Moses at the head of them with the gravity
of fifty or three score. I expect this school will be much
larger when it comes to Oghwaga, as there are but a few
here, and many of these that are, on account of the pres-
ent scarcity, are obliged to employ their children. The
school at Oghwaga will doubtless be large enough for Jo-
seph * and Moses both.
While the school remained at the lake, one of the
missionaries returned to Lebanon to obtain a car-
penter to build houses and make agricultural im-
plements. Two of the Indians, Isaac Dakazenen-
sere and Adam Wavonwanoren, in a letter dated at
the lake in the summer of 1765, asked Mr. Whee-
lock to " assist us in setting up husbandry by
sending a number of white people to live with us
who, when they come, should build us mills, teach
us husbandry, and furnish us with tools for hus-
bandry." But, they added, " we should have you
understand, brothers, that we have no thoughts of
selling our lands to any that come to live among
us. For if we should sell a little land to-day, by
and by they would want to buy a little more and so
our land would go by inches till we should have
none to live upon." A letter dated in September
of the same year found these Indians back in
Oghwaga.
Besides this school, others had been established
among the Oneidas. Mr. Wheelock at Lebanon
still had eighteen boys. Five Mohawks whom he
had educated were teachers in various parts in Cen-
* Joseph Woolley, an " eminently pious " young Delaware Indian, who
had been educated at Lebanon and duly licensed to preach. While mak-
ing one of his trips into the Susquehanna Valley, he fell ill at Cherry
Valley and died.
77
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
tral New York. In the Mohawk and Oneida coun-
tries one hundred and twenty-seven children were
then attending schools, and another school was soon
to be started with twenty.
Best known among the missionaries on whom
Mr. Wheelock had influence is Samuel Kirkland,
forty years of whose life were devoted to the work.
As Dr. Wheelock afterward became the founder of
Dartmouth, so was it Kirkland who founded Ham-
ilton College. Scarcely more than a dozen miles
southeast of Lebanon lies Norwich, where Kirk-
land, in 1 741, was born. He was a student at Le-
banon in his youth, and was there ordained for the
ministry. During the first years of his life in the
wilderness he had for housekeepers two Indians,
once companions of Samson Occum, named David
and Hannah Fowler, who had been educated at
Lebanon. In the neighboring town of Windham,
Kirkland finally married Dr. Wheelock's niece.
In the year 1764 Mr. Kirkland, who had already
been to Oneida with Brant in 1761, and who had
learned the Mohawk tongue from Brant, began his
labors among the New York Indians. Joseph
Woolley accompanied him. They passed down the
Susquehanna in November to Oghwaga, where Jo-
seph was established as a school-master. Mr. Kirk-
land then returned to the Mohawk Valley, whence
he set out for the wilderness west of him, the scene of
his life-long labor, without a penny in his pockets,
and entirely dependent on the natives. Within a few
months famine was threatened, and he was obliged
to return to Oghwaga to escape starvation. He
was forced to live for several days on " white oak
acorns fried in bear's grease." At a later period he
complained that he had lived " more like a dog than
78
PONTIAC'S WAR AND AFTER IT
a Christian minister." Many a time he would have
begged on his knees for a bone such as he had often
thrown to a dog. For ten months he had not slept
free from pain in his bones, with a pain in his chest.
" The devil," he said, " has tried for three years to
starve me to death."
A son of Mr. Wheelock's, named Ralph, who
spent two years in a tour among the missionaries,
came down to Oghwaga about 1768, and afterward
passed considerable time with Mr. Kirkland among
the Oneidas farther north. Ralph Wheelock does
not appear to have possessed much knowledge of
human nature. During this time his relations with
Mr. Kirkland ceased to be cordial. Joseph Brant
used to delight in telling a story of his school-days
at Lebanon, in which Ralph did not figure as pre-
cisely the hero. With Brant in the school was an
Indian boy named William Johnson, a natural son
of Sir William. Ralph Wheelock one day told
William to saddle a horse for him. William refused
to do it on the ground that he " was not a menial,
but a gentleman's son." " Do you know what a
gentleman is ? " asked Ralph. " I do," was the
answer. " A gentleman is a person who keeps race
horses and drinks Madeira wine, and that is what
neither you nor your father does — therefore saddle
the horse yourself." William was among those who
were slain at the battle of Oriskany in 1777.
79
VII
Last of the Indian Missions
1769-1774
THE work at Oghwaga in 1769 was in charge
of the Rev. Eleazer Moseley. He had
been settled there about three years and was
receiving a salary of $500 from the Boston Com-
missioners. The Revs. Peter and Henry Avery
came some time later. James Dean was the inter-
preter in Moseley's time, and in 1769 had been nine
years in the country. In the Smith and Wells
journal we have the following account of the meth-
ods employed by Mr. Moseley in his Sunday work :
June 4th [1769] Sunday. In the morning we attended
Messrs. Moseley and Dean to divine service which was
conducted with regularity and solemnity. They first sang
a psalm, then read a portion of scripture, and after another
psalm Moseley preached a sermon (in a chintz night gown)
and the business was concluded by a third psalm. The
congregation consisted of near one hundred Indians, men
women and children, including the chief of the Tuscarora
town three miles below, with some of his people and they
all behaved with exemplary devotion. The Indian priest
named Isaac sat in the pulpit and the Indian clerk, Peter,
below him. The clerk repeated the psalm in the Oneida
language and the people joined in the melody with exactness
and skill, the tunes very lively and agreeable. The ser-
mon, delivered in English, was repeated in Indian by Dean,
sentence by sentence. The men sat on benches on one
side of the house and the women on the other. Before a
meeting a horn is sounded three several times to give notice.
80
LAST OF THE INDIAN MISSIONS
In the afternoon we attended the service again. This
was performed by the Indian priest in the Oneida language.
He began by a prayer ; then they sang a psalm, the tune
whereof was long, with many undulations, then a prayer
and a second psalm, followed by an exhortation, repeating
part of what Moseley had said in the morning with his own
comments upon it and reading sometimes out of a book,
here being several books in the Indian language. He fin-
ished the service with a benediction. He and his clerk
were dressed in black coats. Isaac is the chief here in re-
ligious affairs, and his brother, a stout fat man, in civil, like
Moses and Aaron. This last fell asleep while his brother
was preaching, but assisted in singing with a loud and hoarse
voice. These brothers and other chiefs came to visit us
very kindly.
An incident, at Oghwaga, of the year 1770 was the
killing of a young Tuscarora by Thomas King, an
Indian. Greatly depressed by his own act, King
decided to submit humbly to the will of the Tusca-
rora's friends, but the matter was referred to Sir
William Johnson, an old sachem going on a special
mission to the baronet. By this year many Mo-
hawks and Oneidas were able to read and write, and
frequently acted as lay readers at church services, us-
ing the liturgy as well as the Presbyterian service, and
making religious addresses.
In 1 77 1 a graduate of Harvard, named Aaron
Crosby, arrived and reported that there were " 290
souls of them who desire assistance." The Ogh-
waga houses were superior to those used by many
white men on the frontier. Some of the Indians he
found to be good farmers. In 1774 Mr. Crosby
became involved in an embarrassing dispute. As a
Congregationalist, he had declined to use the Church
of England service, which the Mohawks naturally
81
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
preferred, having learned to use it at their Fort
Hunter home. During the dispute, a Mohawk Ind-
ian deliberately rose in meeting and proceeded to
read the English service in spite of Mr. Crosby.
Mr. Crosby had further trouble because he refused
to baptize Indian children whose parents were im-
moral, and who could give no guarantee that the
children would be properly guided.
To return to Dr. Wheelock ; it was probably
the final letter from Johnson opposing immigration
of whites that in the main repressed his zeal, and he
saw, moreover, as time went on, that if the boys
whom he educated at Lebanon were to be allowed
to return home to places where no white men were
settled around them, they would inevitably relapse
into their former state of barbarism. Seeing these
things, he was probably all the more willing to de-
part from Lebanon when tracts of land had been
offered in New Hampshire if the school would re-
move to the place where now has grown up Dart-
mouth College. Thus this school at Lebanon was
the germ from which was developed the alma mater
of Daniel Webster.
Mr. Wheelock afterward wrote concerning his suc-
cess at Lebanon that he had educated about forty
Indians to become " good readers and writers and
even sufficiently master of English grammar, arith-
metic and a number of them considerably advanced
in knowledge of Greek and Latin and one of them
carried through college." But in the same report
he declared that these good results almost went to
naught after the boys had returned to their former
associations. " The current," he said, " is too strong.
Of all the number before mentioned I do not hear
of more than one-half who have preserved their
LAST OF THE INDIAN MISSIONS
characters unstained." He added that " some who
on account of their parts and learning bid the fairest
for usefulness, are sunk down as low, savage and
brutish in manner of living as they were in before
any endeavours were used to raise them up." Schools
started in the Indian villages usually did well " un-
til broken up by a hunting tour or some public con-
gress." He was further of opinion that the time
for doing anything effective for the Six Nations was
probably past ; they appeared to be dying rapidly
in a quick consumption, " wasting like a morning
dew." It is well known that the Mohawk nation
in those years became reduced to small numbers
compared with what they had been a few years be-
fore. They declined much more rapidly than any
other members of the Iroquois League.*
Late evidence of the work done by these mission-
aries was obtained in 1843 by Mr. Lothrup, Kirk-
land's biographer. Visiting some Oneidas in Wis-
consin, he asked two aged women to translate for
him certain Indian letters. While the women were
eagerly examining them, he observed them to be-
come suddenly affected as they read the signature of
Honeyost. They explained that Honeyost was their
father, and begged to be allowed to keep one of the
letters. The request was granted, and with delight
in their faces the women exclaimed : " How beautiful,
how wonderful, is it not ? For forty years our father
has slept in his grave and here we have his very
thoughts before us. He speaks now through this."
* Dr. Wheelock's complete disinterestedness in his Indian work has
been called into question. It may at least be said that in the report giv-
ing the disposition made of the funds raised in England the compen-
sation he is shown to have received was large enough for the times. He
seems to have been well paid for doing very creditable work. But that
can scarcely he held up as a reproach.
83
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Honeyost, or Honayuwus, was a chief who lived
more than ninety-four years. He was the author
of a celebrated bit of Indian eloquence inspired by
the close of the Revolution : " The Great Spirit
spoke to the whirlwind and it was still."
84
PART III
Land Titles and Pioneers
1679-1774
William Penn and Sir William
Johnson
1679-1766
IN the future of North America and the history
of Anglo-Saxon civilization the year 1664 was
important. Men of English race, under their
own flag, in that year began to exert an influence
on Manhattan Island. Ten years later they were
confirmed in possession of that territory, now occu-
pied by one of the earth's largest and most opulent
communities. The two dates form part of a great
and memorable chain, starting in 1588, when was
overthrown the Spanish Armada, and ending in
1759, when the English conquered at Quebec.
The whole series embraces successive events by
which the North American continent was wrested
by Englishmen from Spanish, Dutch, and French
domination. Considering all that followed from
the peaceful capitulation of New Amsterdam in
1664, it was one of the most far-reaching events in
American history.
Fifteen years after the capitulation, the English
in New York obtained from the Indians a promise
of the valuable domain of the Susquehanna. As
affecting any actual title the promise appears to
have had little value, but it is of interest to know
that thus early had the valley attracted the attention
of Englishmen. By this act the English surpassed
in enterprise anything the Dutch had done in forty
87
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
years of residence. The Dutch had shown merely
the interest of fur traders, seeking a route of travel.
The English wanted not only a route but land.
James Graham and William Haig, agents of
William Penn, arrived in Albany in 1683 with an
offer from Penn to the Indians for the purchase of
these lands. Penn's purpose was by this method
to divert toward Philadelphia the trade that went
to Albany. His scheme showed foresight and the
English were at once alarmed by it. They declared
that if he bought the river it would " tend to the
utter ruin of the beaver trade as the Indians do
themselves acknowledge." Moreover, there " hath
not anything ever been moved or agitated from the
first settling of these parts more prejudicial to his
Royal Highness's interests and the inhabitants of
this government than this business of the Susque-
hanna river. The French, it is true, have endeav-
ored to take away our trade by piece-meal, but this
will cut it off all at once." In one year Penn, in
fact, had received " upwards of 200 packs of beav-
ers," and the trade promised to increase. If this
continued, the New York Government could not
maintain itself and Albany would be depopulated.
Governor Dongan received word from London in
reply to this report that " we think you will do well
to preserve your interests there as much as possible
so that nothing more go away to Mr. Penn or either
New Jerseys."
Three weeks after the visit a conference with the
Indians was held at Albany, and a formal instrument
was signed and sealed conveying to the English the
Susquehanna territory above Wyalusing,* and in
■ It is obvious that by the Susquehanna was then meant not only the
river as we know it, but other streams that flow into it above Wyalusing,
88
PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON
1684 an offensive and defensive alliance against the
French was concluded at which the Onondaga and
Cayuga sachems made the following statement :
We have given the Susquehanna river which we won
with the sword, to this government and desire that it may-
be a branch of the great Tree * which grows in this place,
the top of which reaches the sun, under whose branches we
shall shelter ourselves from the French and any other peo-
ple, and our fire burn in your houses and your fire burn
with us and we desire that it always may be so and will
not that any of your Penn's people shall settle upon the
Susquehanna river, for all our folks or soldiers are like
wolves in the woods as you sachem of Virginia know, we
having no other land to leave to our children. We desire
of you therefore that you would bear witness of what we
now do, and that we now confirm what we have done be-
fore.
You great man of Virginia, we let you know that
great Penn did speak to us here in Corlear's House by his
agents and desired to buy the Susquehanna river, but we
would not harken to him for we had fastened it to this gov-
This " great man of Virginia " was the Governor-
General, Lord Howard of Effingham, who had gone
to Albany to remonstrate against invasions of his
territory by the Indians. He told them it was now
about seven years since they came unprovoked to
Virginia and "committed such murders and rob-
beries," and that they had invaded that province
including, besides the Unadilla and Charlotte, the Chenango and Che-
mung. One of the official papers of the times says, "All the nations
with whom Albany hath trade live at the head of the Susquehanna river."
Again the river was described as " situated in the middle of the Senaca
country." It was the Cayuga and Onondaga sachems who now made a
conveyance to the English. They said the river " belongs to us alone,
the other nations having nothing to do with it."
# The Tree of Peace.
89
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
every year since in a warlike manner. He proposed
a " new chain " and one " that may be more strong
and lasting even to the world's end." The Indians
were pleased by this conciliatory spirit and the next
day planted the tree of peace.
When the delegates from the several nations re-
ferred to the King of England, then Charles II., they
called him "your friend that lives over the great
lake." They asked to have him informed that they
were " a free people uniting ourselves to what
sachem we please," which was probably the earliest
message to Great Britain from these shores showing
a spirit of independence.
The Indians did not regard this treaty as a deed
conveying all their right and title. The reference
to the valley as the only land they had to leave
their children, implies that they believed the land
still remained in some sense their own. They were
merely placing themselves and their lands " under
the protection of the King," and hoped thus to
" shelter themselves from the French." Sixty years
later, at a conference in Albany, the Indians declared
that their fathers had made the Susquehanna con-
veyance by advice of the English as a way to secure
self-protection and to prevent Penn and others from
imposing on them. They had understood that
they " might always have the land when we should
want it." The English had told them they " would
keep it for our use," and " accordingly we trusted
them."
That the English, on the other hand, believed
they had secured ownership is obvious from Don-
gan's report of 1687, when he said he had been
obliged " to give a great deal to the Indians for the
Susquehanna river." Whatever the sum given,
90
PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON
it probably was not large. Certain other convey-
ances of land secured from the Indians in 1683
named as considerations " half a piece of Duffels,
two blankets, two guns, three kettles, four coats,
fifty pounds of lead and five and twenty pounds of
powder."
Dongan, in announcing the purchase to Penn,
expressed a hope that " you and I shall not fall
out : I desire that we may join heartily together to
advance the interests of my master and your good
friend." But Penn never forgave Dongan for
thwarting his ambition, and finally had his revenge.
At the court of James II., where he was high in
favor, Penn fostered prejudices against Dongan, and
in 1686 Dongan heard that he was to be recalled.
In distress he wrote directly to the King : " Mr.
Penn has written that I was to be recalled home
and I do not doubt that he would do all he can to
effect it, having no great kindness for me because
I did not consent to his buying the Susquehanna
river." But this letter saved him not. Dongan
was recalled. Two years later James himself, in
the revolution of 1688, realized what it was to be
overtaken by misfortune. Nor was it long before
misfortune came to Penn. Penn's desire for the
valley still existed as late as 1691, when an address
to the King, William of Orange, from the Gov-
ernor and Council of New York, contained these
words :
If Mr. Penn should attain his pretenses to the Susque-
hanna river it will not only destroy the best branch of your
Majesty's revenue, but it will likewise depopulate your prov-
ince, the inhabitants of Albany having only seated them-
selves there and addicted their minds to the English lan-
guage and the mysteries of the said trade with purpose to
91
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
manage it, that if it should be diverted from that channel
they must follow it, having no other way or art to get a
livelihood.
In the following year, by an order in Council,
Penn was deprived of the Governorship of Pennsyl-
vania, and new accusations were made of treasonable
correspondence with James, who was now a king in
exile. But the men of New York, thanks to Don-
gan,* had forever secured the Susquehanna Valley.
In 171 1 we find them giving an order to the Ind-
ians living on the river to send their fighting men
to Albany to join an English expedition against the
French in Canada. Thenceforth until the Revolu-
tion the English often repeated this appeal and not
in vain.
Following the fur traders came actual settlers.
Along the lower Mohawk white men had estab-
lished homes soon after the Dutch came to New
York, but in the main these were only trading
posts, just as Albany itself originally was one.
Schenectady was the most important, the place being
actually settled somewhat later — about 1660. By
1690 it had grown to be a town of eighty houses
surrounded by a stockade. At midnight in Febru-
ary of that year Frontenac burned all those houses
and killed sixty-three persons. Royal grants of
land further west along the Mohawk came later
still. Even the English were slow to set value on
the vast areas of fertile soil that lay uncultivated in
the Western wilderness.
Near Fort Hunter, John P. Maibae acquired a
* Thomas Dongan's services to the Province of New York have been
most lastingly commemorated in that instrument called after him — the
"Charter of Liberties and Privileges" of 1686, which remains a land-
mark in the history of popular government in America.
92
PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON
patent in 1705, while in the same year was issued
the great Oriskany patent on which Fort Stanwix
was afterward to be built, and which remained for
many years the extreme outpost of the white men's
landed possessions in the Province of New York ;
but the real " thirst for land " did not actually set in
among the English until twenty or thirty years
later, in the time of Governor Burnet, who with
large foresight planted the trading post and fort at
Oswego. To that period belong the patents issued
in the Mohawk Valley to Lewis Morris, Robert
Livingston, Rutgerd Bleeker, Abram Van Horn, and
Frederick Morris, and the great Cosby's Manor
grant extending from German Flatts westward be-
yond Utica, on both sides of the stream.
When the Protestant missionaries took up their
work, the upper Susquehanna had become familiar
ground to many white men, a few of whom had
secured titles to land. It is not surprising to
find that the first men who became owners of
land were traders, or men interested in the trade,
or that they still more frequently were men whose
official places enabled them to secure grants advan-
tageously.
John Lindesay, who obtained the Cherry Valley
patent in 1738, and founded the settlement at that
place in the following year under the name of Linde-
say's Bush, had been Sheriff of Albany County, and
in company with Philip Livingston, who lived in
Albany and was a commissioner of Indian affairs,
for more than twenty-five years, had obtained in
1730 a patent on the Mohawk near Little Falls.
Lindesay secured the Cherry Valley tract while
George Clarke was Lieutenant-Governor. Clarke,
who was interested in the tract, came to America
93
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
from England in Queen Anne's time, in order to
act as Secretary to the Province, and in 1736 had
become Lieutenant-Governor, an office he held for
seven years. By marriage he was connected with
the family of Hyde, to which belonged the earls of
Clarendon, and from which came the name of the
family home in Otsego — Hyde Hall.*
Arendt Bradt, of Schenectady, who obtained a
small patent on Schenevus Creek in 1738, another
on the same creek in 1740, and a third at the
mouth of that creek in 1740, was a commissioner of
Indian affairs, serving with Philip Livingston, and
with Livingston owned a patent on the Mohawk.
Nearly all these Indian commissioners were engaged
in the fur trade. Although they received no sala-
ries as commissioners, the office was one of profit
and consequence. What was known as Petrie's
Purchase, extending north from Otsego Lake, was
secured in 1740, John J. Petrie being a resident
of German Flatts, where at one time he was a mag-
istrate. John Groesbeck, who was an officer of the
Court of Chancery, obtained in 1741 the patent
lying northeast of the lake, in which neighborhood
lay the George Clarke lands.
Voleert Oothout in 1741 secured a patent to the
bottom-lands of Cherry Valley Creek, extending
from Lindesay's patent down to and across the
Susquehanna. David Schuyler, whose family was
prominent in Indian affairs, and who had close re-
lations with John Lindesay, in 1755 obtained his
large patent running west from Richfield. From
* After the Revolution another George Clarke, heir to these lands as
Clarke's grandson, came over and established himself permanently on
the lake. Of the semi-baronial life which he led there, interesting
glimpses are given by Levi Beardsley, who knew Clarke well and had
often partaken of his hospitality.
94
PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON
him the lake of Richfield derived the name which
for many years it bore.
Most interesting of all these early grants is the
one made to William Johnson in 1751. Desiring
to secure possession of the Susquehanna lands ex-
tending from the mouth of the Charlotte to the
Pennsylvania line, he, like others, found it necessary
first to purchase them from the Indians. In May,
1 75 1, he petitioned for the lands after having cor-
respondence with Gouldsborough Banyar, as to the
form of petition. He applied for a tract extending
one mile back from the river on each side and esti-
mated to embrace 100,000 acres.
In the same year a warrant was issued to Johnson
and others — the petition had come from " William
Johnson and Co." — to lay out these lands as far as
the Pennsylvania line, a line which then had not
been definitely fixed, and this gave rise to anxiety in
Pennsylvania. In this year was held the Albany
council at which Jonathan Edwards learned of the
desire of the English to send missionaries into the
valley. Johnson's interest in these lands and Haw-
ley's coming to Oghwaga have close connection.
That Johnson purchased the lands from the Ind-
ians is shown in a letter he addressed to " the
King's most excellent Majesty in Council," in 1766,
saying the Six Nations had given him " by deed a
tract of land on the Susquehanna river within the
said Province," for which he " had paid them a
large sum of money."
Johnson was the earliest white man who by pur-
chase acquired title to lands in the upper valley
west of the Charlotte. He had first risen to office
in 1745, when he was made a Justice of the Peace.
Four years later he was appointed Sole Superintend-
95
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
ent of Indian Affairs, and prepared at once to concil-
iate the red men Along with wampum belts he
sent them a request to attend the council of 1751.
Clad in their own dress, he partook of their pastimes,
put on their paint and feathers, and was adopted by
the Mohawks as a chief. All previous councils
were far outdone, and Johnson's success perhaps
marked a turning-point in the conflict with France.
The council met on the same hill where now rises
the imposing edifice reared by the Empire State for
its Capitol, and here, under Johnson's influence, was
held that other and greater council, the Congress of
J 754-
In his time Johnson became owner of a vast estate,
acquired by methods of which modern notions of
right and wrong perhaps would not wholly approve,
but which in the eighteenth century were com-
mon to men in office in America. Dr. Timothy
Dwight says this wealth was due to " a succession of
ingenious and industrious devices," and a story il-
lustrative of them has been so widely printed as to
be generally believed :
Old King Hendrick of the Mohawks was at his house
at the time Sir William received two or three rich suits of
military clothes. The old King, a short time afterward,
came to Sir William and said: " I dream." " Well, what
did you dream ? " " I dream you gave me one suit of
clothes." " Well, I suppose you must have it," and ac-
cordingly he gave him one. Some time after, Sir William
met Hendrick and said : " I dreamed last night." " Did
you ? what did you dream ? " " I dreamed you gave
me a tract of land," describing it. After a pause Hen-
drick said : " I suppose you must have it," and then rais-
ing his finger significantly, added, " You must not dream
again."
96
PENN AND SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON
Besides Dwight, others have accepted this story,
among them Campbell (who credits it to Dwight),
Schoolcraft, and Simms, who gave Henry F. Yates
as his authority. Stone, in very positive terms, pro-
nounced the story untrue, and his statement in-
spires confidence. Johnson has not been the only
victim of the anecdote. In language almost identi-
cal it may be found in a biography of the younger
Conrad Weiser, where Weiser takes Johnson's place
as the hero. Weiser's biographer is as positive as
Johnson's in his denial of its truth.
A tradition exists in the Susquehanna Valley that
the land referred to in the story was not in the Mo-
hawk Valley, but in the Susquehanna, at the mouth
of Otego Creek, and it is well known that some of
the early deeds now on record at Cooperstown use
the words " being a parcel of Sir William John-
son's dreamland tract." Johnson's own statement
that he had paid " a large sum of money " for his
Susquehanna tract, the warrant issued to him in
1 75 1 and Stone's positive denial must, however, be
remembered. As for the early Otsego deeds, they
could have done little more than continue a tradition
which, at the time the earliest deeds at Cooperstown
were drawn, was forty years old. King Hendrick,
moreover, was of the Mohawks and that nation is
not known to have claimed any lands as far west as
Otego Creek. Some importance must also be given
to a letter written by Johnson to the Lords of Trade
in 1764, in which he says :
The friendship which several of the Indian nations
professed for me induced them at different periods many
years ago to give me deeds of several large tracts, signed in
public meetings of the whole, for which as they always ex-
97
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
pect a return I at times paid them large sums, more than
they received from many strangers, and might have pro-
cured patents for such tracts and settled or disposed of
them to great advantage a long time since, but for my un-
willingness to be engaged in lands from the nature of my
employment.
9 8
II
The Fort Stanwix Deed,
and
Patents that Followed It
1768-1770
LAST of the great acts of Sir William John-
son's life was the negotiation of the treaty of
Fort Stanwix in 1768. By the terms of this
treaty a vast territory south and east of the Ohio,
Susquehanna, and Unadilla rivers was first opened
to settlement. After Pontiac's War, discontent had
arisen among the Indians from many causes. For
one thing, they disliked the white man's inordinate
" thirst for land," and a council was called, not only
to renew the ancient covenant chain between the
Indians and the English, but to establish a scientific
frontier.
In preparation for this council some twenty large
batteaux laden with presents best suited to propitiate
the Indians had been conveyed to Fort Stanwix.*
From his agent at Albany Sir William ordered
sixty barrels of flour, fifty barrels of pork, six bar-
rels of rice, and seventy barrels of other provisions.
When the Congress opened, 3,200 Indians were
present, " each of whom," wrote Johnson, " con-
sumes daily more than two ordinary men amongst
*The site of Fort Stanwix is now Rome, Oneida County. D E
Wager says it was "the largest and strongest fort ever erected in the
Province of New York, except Crown Point and Ticonderoga. "
99
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
us, and would be extremely dissatisfied if stinted
when convened for business." After Sir William
had told them the King was resolved to terminate
the grievances from which they suffered for want of
a boundary, and that the King had ordered presents
proportionate to the nature and extent of the inter-
ests involved, the Indians retired, and for several
days were in private council.
The full report of these proceedings shows the
sagacity and firmness with which Sir William carried
his points. When, finally, the deed was executed,
it conveyed to the English a vast territory out of
which States have since been made. On that deed
rests the title by purchase from the Indians, not only
to large parts of New York but of Kentucky, West
Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The deed bears date
of November 5, 1768. Among those who wit-
nessed its execution were Benjamin Franklin and
William Franklin, his natural son, at that time Gov-
ernor of New Jersey. It transferred the land with
"all the hereditaments and appurtenances to the
same belonging, or appurtaining, in the fullest and
most ample manner," and all right, title, or interest,
" either in law or equity of each and every one of
us " unto " our said Sovereign Lord King George
III., his heirs and successors to and for his and
their own proper use and behoof forever."
The actual sum paid in money tor this imperial
territory was about $50,600. The money came to
the Indians at a time when they needed it. The
corn-crop for that year in great measure had failed.
Richard Smith, who was at Oghwaga in the follow-
ing summer, says " they lived through the winter
and spring on the money received at the treaty from
the sale of their lands." He reported them as
100
THE FORT STANWIX DEED
" continually passing up to the settlements to buy-
provisions and sometimes showed us money in their
bosoms."
From a point on the Allegany River several miles
above Pittsburg, this historic line of property ran in
a northeasterly direction to the head of Towanda
Creek, proceeding down that stream to the Susque-
hanna. Thence it went northward along the river to
Tioga Point, eastward to Owego,* and from this
place crossed the country to the Delaware, reaching
it at a point a few miles below Hancock. From
here it went up the Delaware to a point " opposite
to where Tianaderha falls into the Susquehanna,"
which point is now Deposit. Thence the line went
directly across the hills to the Unadilla, and up
that stream " to the west branch, to the head there-
of." The Indians declared that the deed had been
executed " to prevent those intrusions and encroach-
ments of which we have so long and loudly com-
plained and to put a stop to many fraudulent ad-
vantages which have been so often taken of us in
land affairs." The Indians made certain reserva-
tions that " lands occupied by the Mohawks around
their villages, as well as by any other nation affected
by this our cession, may effectually remain to them
and their posterity." Out of this grew prolonged
trouble. It had very marked influence in pro-
ducing the discontent from which were precipitated
the Border Wars of the Revolution.
In the year following the treaty, a Government
surveyor was sent into the country to run the line
of division. His name was Simon Metcalf. He
began at Deposit, and proceeded north to the Sus-
* Ahwaga in the Onondaga dialect, and meaning where the valley
widens. Written also Owegy.
IOI
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
quehanna. During the negotiations a committee of
four Indians, named Tyarwruanto, Ganaquieson,
Tyeransen, and Tagawarn had advised Johnson that
the line should run from Oriskany " to the Tiana-
derha," and down that stream to the Susquehanna ;
thence " in a straight line to the hills and so to the
Delaware branch and down the same to Owegy."
That line from the mouth of the Unadilla to Deposit
(then called Cookose) remains to this day the west-
ern boundary of Delaware County.
Sir William, among other difficulties in negotiating
this treaty, encountered opposition from mission-
aries. He says they " did all in their power to pre-
vent the Oneidas (whose property part of the Sus-
quehanna is) from agreeing to any line that might
be deemed reasonable." They had publicly de-
clared to several gentlemen that they " had taken
infinite pains with the Indians to obstruct the line
and would continue so to do." He added that the
New Englanders " had had missionaries for some
time amongst the Oneidas and Oghwagas and I
was not ignorant that their old pretension to the
Susquehanna lands was their real, though religion
was their assumed, object."
Johnson's correspondence with the British Minis-
ter, Lord Hillsborough, discloses some of the pecul-
iar circumstances in which Johnson negotiated this
treaty. The King, George III., was indisposed to
pay so large a sum as $50,000. He thought the
demands of the savages " very unreasonable," and
was unwilling that the mother country should have
" any part or expence of a measure calculated for
the local interests of particular colonies." Johnson,
however, had been obliged to proceed on his own
responsibility before the letter, containing the King's
102
THE FORT STANWIX DEED
views, arrived. He wrote to the Minister that the
sum paid " was the most moderate that could have
been offered for so valuable and extensive a cession."
He afterward proposed a method by which the Crown
could be reimbursed for its outlay. It was that all
grants of land be subject to a tax of $50 for each
thousand acres. A million acres thus would yield
the sum of 150,000.
The original purpose of the Crown had been to
continue the line " northward from Owego." After
the treaty, Johnson explained that he had found it
"extremely difficult to get the line so far to the
westward from its vicinity to their own towns, and
indeed the whole of the line as it approached them
cost me more pains and trouble than can be con-
ceived." In this statement we see reasons for the
peculiar course of the line as it ran from Owego to the
Delaware, and thence to the Unadilla River, instead
of going " northward from Owego." Johnson's
course finally received the royal sanction, on De-
cember 9, 1769, when Hillsborough wrote that it
was the King's pleasure " that you should declare
the royal ratification of the treaty of Fort Stanwix in
such manner as has been usual on the like occasions."
No sooner had this treaty been negotiated than
the business of getting patents began to thrive. In
1769 was issued the John Butler patent, lying north
of the Butternut Creek and reaching westward to
the Unadilla River. John Butler was a deputy un-
der Johnson, and afterward became notorious as
the Tory Colonel who followed Guy Johnson to
Canada, and then returned with his son Walter to
write his history in the blood of many innocent
persons. In the same year George Croghan got
his patent running west from Otsego Lake. These
103
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
lands were given to Croghan through an understand-
ing with the Indians, who desired thus to compen-
sate him for lands he had purchased of them in
Pennsylvania, and which, by the terms of the treaty,
he would now lose. Croghan got 100,000 acres in
October, 1768, the patent being issued in the fol-
lowing year. He also received 18,000 acres near
Cherry Valley, which eventually passed to his daugh-
ter, the wife of Augustine Prevost. Other lands
Croghan sold to Joseph Wharton.
Croghan took steps to settle the tract on the
lake. In the course of his enterprise he mortgaged
the lands, and eventually lost them through fore-
closure. William Cooper, in the interest of the
mortgagees, after the Revolution, went to the lake
to view the lands, and soon became a settler and the
founder of Cooperstown. There in the wilderness
his son, the future novelist, grew up from infancy
and gained that knowledge of frontier life and
Indian character of which he has given the truest
and most lasting pictures in our literature. Had
Croghan succeeded in his enterprise the world prob-
ably never would have heard of " Leather Stocking."
From the same year dates the Morris patent, a
part of which lies in the town of Unadilla. It was
granted to Staats Long Morris, General Jacob Mor-
ris's uncle, and a brother of Lewis Morris, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Staats
Long Morris was then an officer in the British army,
and had served in India against the French at the
siege of Pondicherry. Before settling this patent
he had married the Dowager Duchess of Gordon.
In 1797 he became Governor of Quebec.
In 1770 were issued the patents on the Unadilla
River known as Peter Middleton's and Clotworthy
104
THE FORT STANWIX DEED
Upton's, the Otego patent issued to Charles Reade,
Thomas Wharton, and others, the one in the Char-
lotte Valley issued to Johnson, and the numerous
patents on the south side of the Susquehanna issued
to Augustine Prevost, John Harper, William Wal-
ton, Laurence Kortright, and others. In issuing
the Otego patent, the Crown reserved " all white
or other sorts of pine trees fit for masts of the
growth of twenty four inches' diameter and upwards
at ten inches from the earth for masts, for the royal
navy of us, our heirs and successors." It was re-
quired that one family should settle on each 1,000
acres within three years, and cultivate three acres for
every fifty acres capable of cultivation. Should the
trees fit for masts be cut without license, the titles
were to be forfeited. In this patent were 69,000
acres.
105
Ill
The Patent Called Wallace's
1770
BY the terms of the Fort Stanwix deed, that
portion of Sir William Johnson's Susque-
hanna domain which lay west of the mouth
of the Unadilla had passed again into the hands of
the Indians. To the remainder, being lands between
the mouth of the Unadilla and the mouth of the
Charlotte, a new patent in 1770 was granted to
Alexander Wallace and many associates. An ac-
count of this patent may be given in detail to illus-
trate the circumstances in which so many patents on
this frontier were in that period obtained.
In the year of the Fort Stanwix deed two well-
known merchants of New York were Hugh Wallace
and a younger brother Alexander, both natives of
Ireland. Hugh had been in the country as early
as 1753, but Alexander came several years later.
Each had married a daughter of Cornelius Low,
and thus was connected with some of the most dis-
tinguished families in the New York colony. The
name of Low ranked among the best names in the
aristocracy of that seaport town whose population
was then under 20,000. For several years the
brothers were prominently engaged in the Irish
trade, their ships making voyages to Cork and
Dublin. Hugh was the second president of the
Chamber of Commerce. In 1769, the year following
the deed, Hugh was chosen a member of the Provin-
cial Council and continued to hold the office until
106
THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE'S
1776. It was an office of distinction, but no salary,
and one of the chief advantages derived from holding
it was that it enabled the holder to secure for him-
self, his family, and his friends, large grants of land.
The Wallace patent comprised 28,000 acres, and
in order to comply with the regulation limiting hold-
ings, it was issued to twenty-eight persons, each to
hold a twenty-eighth part.* Many of these men
were prominent citizens of New York in the eigh-
teenth century. Some were merchants like the Wal-
laces themselves ; others were journalists, and others
physicians. A sketch of the lives of several of them
will show how they were intimately acquainted, if
not associated, with a merchant and councillor like
Hugh Wallace and a prominent official like Goulds-
borough Banyar.
Mr. Low had grown up in the office of Hay-
man Levy, an eminent trader, who taught John
Jacob Astor the fur business, and before that had
started Mr. Low in business by selling him a hogs-
head of rum with which to trade with Indians.
Mr. Low, in his time, became a great local magnate,
and the firm of Low & Wallace, of 216 Water
Street, was widely known. Mr. Low became owner
of extensive lands in Jefferson and Lewis counties,
including the sites of Adams and Watertown, and
after him was named Lowville. He was a mem-
ber of the convention which adopted the Constitu-
tion of the United States.
* These persons were Alexander Wallace, John Kennedy, John
Shaw, John Hamilton, Hamilton Young, Robert Ross Waddell, Robert
Alexander, Smith Ramadge, Anthony Van Dam, Theodore Marston,
David Mathews, Charles Ramadge, John Miller, William Park, John
Moore, James Stewart, Nicholas Low, Francis Stephens, John Fair-
holme, William Stepple, William Newton, Hugh Gaine, John Rice,
James Leadbetter, Charles Morse, Peter Middleton, James Rivington,
and Robert McAlpin.
IO7
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Mr. Waddell also was a merchant, the junior
partner in the large house of George Cunningham
& Co., and its New York manager. Their business
was Irish. After the war Mr. Waddell went into
business on his own account. He was one of the
founders of the St. Patrick Society and its secretary
for nineteen years. He died in 1818. John Shaw
was another New York merchant, and did business
in Water Street.
Two of the patentees, Rivington and Gaine, were
journalists. Rivington was born in London in 1724,
came to New York in 1761, and died there in
1802. His place of business was in Wall Street.
He began the publication of the New York Gazet-
teer newspaper, and was such an ardent Tory in the
Revolution that seventy-five horsemen, led by Cap-
tain Isaac Sears, went down from Connecticut, entered
his office, destroyed his press, and made bullets of his
type. Later on he turned Whig, and in 1781 acted
as a spy for Washington. Ashbel Green described
him as " the greatest sycophant imaginable ; very lit-
tle under the influences of any principle but self
interest, yet of the most courteous manners to all
with whom he had intercourse."
Gaine was a native of Ireland and published a
New York paper called the Mercury. He was at
first a Whig and afterward became a Royalist. On
petition he was allowed to remain in New York after
the war, and conducted thenceforth a book-store.
He died possessed of a large estate.
Peter Middleton was one of the most eminent
physicians of his time in this country, and a gradu-
ate of the University of Edinburgh. He helped to
make the first dissections ever undertaken in Amer-
ica, was among the founders of a medical school
108
THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE'S
afterward absorbed by Columbia College, and a
vestryman of Trinity Church from 1792 until 1808.
Another interesting name is that of David Mathews.
He was Mayor of New York in 1776, and was ar-
rested and imprisoned accused of participation in
the plot to assassinate Washington.
A survey of the Wallace patent was made in 1 770
by Alexander Colden. In the same year surveys
were made all through this part of the State, includ-
ing the Edmeston patent and the Peter Middleton
and Upton patents, by Robert Picken. A second
survey of the Wallace patent was made in 1774 by
William Cockburn and John Wagram, and accord-
ing to this many of the early sales to smaller pro-
prietors were made even as late as the sale by Peter
Betts of lands in Unadilla village to Stephen
Benton in 1 804. Not only were many surveys made
in 1770, but many patents dated from that year.
The white man was prompt enough to avail himself
of his opportunities, and the royal Governor was
quite ready to encourage the business because of the
large fees. These fees and what we nowadays know
as " influence " appear to have been about all that
was then necessary to secure a vast and fertile do-
main in the New York wilderness.
Hugh and Alexander Wallace were Tories of an
uncompromising type, Hugh naturally from the
office which he held. In August, 1776, they were
apprehended by orders from Washington, because
they had declined to take the oath of allegiance to
Congress. Hugh was sent into Connecticut in care
of Governor Trumbull, and Alexander to a place
on the Hudson River. Alexander petitioned the
Congress, saying his " private papers on the pre-
servation of which the well being of his family prin-
109
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
cipally depends, are buried in the earth on Long
Island in a place unknown to any but your peti-
tioner and now in prison in New York, and will
soon perish unless redeemed from their present
state." His wife and eight small children on Long
Island were " utterly destitute of that necessary as-
sistance which so numerous a family must unavoid-
ably want." They were obliged to quit the house
that they had occupied, as the owner wanted it for
himself, and thus the family would be without a
home unless Wallace could return. Both he and
Hugh were finally allowed to proceed to Long
Island on parole, under an agreement not to take
up arms against the colony. Here they remained
while the war proceeded, and dispensed a generous
hospitality.
Three years later the New York Legislature passed
an act by which a large number of persons were at-
tainted of treason, their estates were to be confis-
cated and they proscribed. If found on State soil
they were to be seized and punished with death,
"without the benefit of clergy," their crime being
" an adherence to the enemies of the State." Hugh
and Alexander Wallace were among the unfortunate
persons thus named. Another was Sir John John-
son, son and heir of Sir William.
Except in the Susquehanna patent the name of
Alexander Wallace is not encountered in Susque-
hanna history. He and his brother having been
attainted of treason, the lands, had they been theirs,
would have been confiscated, as was done with the
Johnson lands in the Charlotte Valley, which had
been left by Sir William to his brother and sister,
and titles to which for the settlers afterward came
directly from the State. But the Wallaces by this
no
THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE'S
time had ceased to have any title to these lands.
Protected as they were by the British in New York,
they appear to have continued their partnership
until the war closed. When the British evacuated
New York in November, 1783, Hugh went with
them, and probably Alexander. Hugh died in
Waterford in 1788.
It is probable that Alexander was never the actual
owner of a patent that has carried his name to our
times, and will carry it to remote generations of land-
owners. It is much more obvious that Hugh was
the real Wallace at first interested, and that another
interested person, and eventually the sole one, was
Gouldsborough Banyar. In some of the early road
surveys the patent is called Banyar's Patent.
The history of many patents is curious in that
the real owners frequently were not those to whom
the patents were issued. Long before the Revolu-
tion the greed for land had become so sharp that a
limitation had been imposed as to the amount which
any one person could hold : this limit was 1,000 acres.
An easy way out of the difficulty, however, was
found. Accommodating friends acted as fictitious
owners, and promptly made over to the real persons
in interest the titles granted in their names. Cer-
tain facts point to this method in the case of the
Wallace patent. It is known, for example, that in
1772, and at other times before the Revolution,
Hugh Wallace and Banyar sold lands from this
patent to the Rev. William Johnston, who settled in
Sidney, and lots 61 and 62, comprising 100 and 384
acres respectively, to Robert McGinnis about the
same time, and yet the name of neither appears in
the list of those to whom the patent had been issued
two years before.
in
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Banyar was of English birth, and had come to
America about 1737. He soon rose to be a man
of note in the province. In 1755 he was a registrar
of the Colonial Court of Chancery, and in 1753,
1756, and 1769 an officer of the Prerogative Court,
which attended to the probate of wills and the
granting of licenses of marriage. When Cadwallader
Colden became acting Governor in 1769, he was
Deputy Secretary of the Council, and when a riotous
demonstration followed the arrival of the Stamp Act
paper, his name appeared on a placard posted by
Colden seeking to quiet the enraged people.
When the war came on, Banyar retired from the
city to a place on the Hudson River. He was a
Tory in his sympathies, and possessed large landed
interests. As early as 1754 he had applied for a
tract of 1,000 acres in what is now Cobleskill. All
through the State land papers runs evidence of an
earth hunger on his part, that was appeased in many
parts of Tryon County. He was advantageously
situated to realize his ambition, holding the office
he did. With the advent of war Banyar's extensive
holdings became a powerful incentive to discreet
action. He escaped the fate of the Wallaces, but
escaped narrowly. On January 15, 1776, his name
appeared on a list of suspected per sons who were to
be arrested, and he was one of those from whom
arms were taken. His home on the Hudson was
at Red Bank, and later at Rhinebeck.
It is related that while he lived at Rhinebeck a
British officer arrived from New York City with a
sealed letter asking his advice as to the best method
of attacking Esopus. He received the letter, en-
tertained the officer and his attendants handsomely,
and sent them away with a sealed reply which con-
112
THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE'S
tained this brief message : " Mr. Banyar knows
nothing." This was an example of the prudence
with which he bore himself throughout the conflict.
When the war closed, he took up his home in Al-
bany, and in Albany he continued to live until
1 8 1 5, actively interested in internal improvements,
and generously contributing to them. He died with-
out children at the age of ninety-one. Worth, who
knew him in Albany, as early as 1800, says of him :
Among other curious objects that attracted my attention
during the early part of my residence in Albany, was a blind
old man led about the streets by a colored servant. It was
Gouldsborough Banyar, a most intelligent, wealthy, and re-
spectable old gentleman. He was the most perfect type of
the Anglo-American then living. He was the last of a race
(a class of men now totally extinct), a race born in Eng-
land, grown rich in America, proud of their birth and
prouder of their fortune. He was a royalist in feeling (at
the outbreak of the war) and doubtless in principle — his
feelings it is believed underwent no change : his principles
in the course of time became temperately and I may add
judiciously modified by his interests. He had while in his
office of Secretary obtained from the Crown many large and
valuable tracts of land.
These lands were the source of his wealth. With the
eye of intelligence sharpened by the peculiarity of his posi-
tion he watched the course of events and like a skilful
pilot steered between the extremes. He wisely kept a friend
in either port and had always an anchor to windward. In
short, he preserved his character from reproach on the other
side of the water and his lands from confiscation on this.
It is impossible, I think, to reflect a moment upon the posi-
tion which Mr. Banyar occupied during the war of the Rev-
olution, and the manner in which he sustained himself in
it, without conceding to him a thorough knowledge of the
world, great sagacity and great address.
"3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
For a long period the Banyar lands in the Sus-
quehanna Valley were leased on the redemption
plan ; that is, for a lot of say one hundred and sixty
acres, $24 rent was annually paid, with the privilege
— in some cases at least — of purchase at $400.
Older residents of Unadilla remembered a gentleman
named Dexter who used to come out annually from
Albany to collect the rents, and on Sundays was
certain to be seen in St. Matthew's Church. It was
from Mr. Banyar that this church received the
gift of a farm on the road to Sidney long known as
the Church Farm. Some of the Banyar leased
lands were not purchased until very recent times, and
perhaps all have not yet been acquired in fee simple.
By the terms of his will, the name of Gouldsborough
Banyar must survive with ownership of the property,
and thus there exists to-day an opulent gentleman
of that name.
When the student of titles in this valley reaches
the period at which purchases were made by settlers,
he encounters besides Banyar's name, the names of
other men who were well known as large land-
owners in this State at that period, and who lived
chiefly about Albany and in New York. Best
known among such names is Livingston. In Sidney
a large tract was owned by Peter van Brugh Liv-
ingston. He died about 1792, and after that date
we meet with John Livingston's name. John Liv-
ingston was one of the original stockholders of the
Catskill turnpike. He sat in the Assembly in 1786
from Albany County, in 1788, 1790, and 1801 from
Columbia County, and for several terms was a
senator.
Another name associated with these lands is Van
Vechten. Abraham van Vechten was an eminent
114
THE PATENT CALLED WALLACE'S
lawyer in Albany, a graduate from the office of John
Lansing. Having been the first lawyer admitted to
practice, after the adoption of the Constitution, he
was familiarly called the " father of the New York
bar." He was born in Catskill, educated in New
York, and began to practise law at Johnstown, but
soon removed to Albany, where he had much dis-
tinction. He served in the Legislature, was Attor-
ney-General, a member of the Constitutional Con-
vention of 1 82 1, and declined a seat on the Supreme
Bench offered him by John Jay. He was born in
1761 and died in 1837.
John and Abram G. Lansing, other owners, be-
longed to an ancient Albany family. John Lansing
was an eminent lawyer, a native of Albany ; was
often a member of Assembly, twice Speaker of the
Assembly, a member of Congress, a delegate with
Alexander Hamilton and Robert Yates to the Phila-
delphia convention that framed the Constitution of
the United States, a justice of the State Supreme
Court, Chief-Justice of the State, and Chancellor.
He mysteriously disappeared in New York in 1829,
and was supposed either to have been robbed and
murdered or accidentally drowned.
IV
The First Settlers
1720-1772
IN the coming of the Scotch-Irish to the head-
waters of the Susquehanna, the New York
frontier received a new and vital addition
to those human forces which preserved and ex-
panded its patriotism during the Revolution. To
the valley of the Mohawk and Schoharie men of
this race had not yet come. Following the Dutch,
who at Schenectady had planted the first considera-
ble settlement beyond Albany, the Palatines, about
1720-25, or thirty years after Schenectady was
destroyed by Frontenac, had arrived in those val-
leys — a hardy, industrious, stolid race, by whom
wealth was easily wrested from the fertile soil that
extended southward to Schoharie from Fort Hunter
and which bordered the Mohawk for many miles
around German Flatts. A few of the English left
Manhattan Island and the Hudson Valley for the
Mohawk, and to the Mohawk, long after the first
Palatines, came others of German and Dutch origin,
forsaking their earlier homes in the Hudson Valley.
Following Sir William Johnson in the middle of
the century also came a few Irishmen with many
Scotch Highlanders of the Catholic faith. But
these were mainly traders or officials and were sel-
dom or never agriculturalists. These additions left
the bulk of the Mohawk and Schoharie population
still German and Dutch — perhaps three-fourths
of it.
116
THE FIRST SETTLERS
During the last years of the French War, the in-
dustry of these people had been so productive that,
between the mouth of East Canada Creek and Tribes
Hill, nearly 500 dwellings had been erected, with
excellent farm buildings and large areas of land in
an excellent state of cultivation. When the Revo-
lution began, the whole valley was populous enough
to be divided into four districts for organization and
defence, each with a committee of its own — the Mo-
hawk, Canajoharie, Palatine, and German Flatts dis-
tricts, the latter being the most westerly and having
for its chief village a town of seventy houses. How
thickly populated the valley had become may again
be seen in the chain of forts which stood there in
1779. Beginning with Fort Hunter and extending
westward, there were in the order named, Fort John-
son, Fort Harrison, Fort Hendrick, Fort Herki-
mer, Fort Dayton, Fort Schuyler (on the site of
Utica), Fort Stanwix, and Fort Bute, while, what
was known as the Royal Block House, stood near
the eastern end of Oneida Lake.
From these three elements — Palatine, Scotch-
Irish, and Dutch — came the men who bore the
shock of war when the conflict with England began.
It was they who became patriots almost to a man ;
it was the houses and crops of these which were
burned ; it was they who were murdered or made
prisoners, they who took the field against the in-
vader and died at Oriskany, Klock's Field, and
Johnstown. The ranks of the Tories, meanwhile,
were recruited from the English, Irish, and Scotch
Highlanders. By men of those races were organ-
ized the forces which, with Brant and his Indians,
effected the massacres of Cherry Valley and Wyo-
ming ; burned Springfield, German Flatts, and Can-
117
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
ajoharie ; reconverted into a wilderness the upper
Susquehanna ; laid waste the Schoharie Valley and
spread desolation through almost every settlement
on the Mohawk west of Schenectady.
Among these frontier communities the ones
planted by the Scotch-Irish on the Susquehanna
formed the extreme outpost of civilization in New
York. Of all these regions theirs was the most
sparsely settled ; they were themselves the most re-
mote from contact with other settlers, occupying as
they did the high lands of a new water-shed ; it was
upon them that the Indian and Tory raids in the
Border Wars were first to fall, and it was their lands
alone that became entirely depopulated — a state of
annihilation to which no other part of the frontier
was reduced. Who these men were and whence
and how they came may therefore be set forth in
detail.
The Scotch-Irish comprise a people who have
exerted wide influence in American history. In the
seventeenth and early in the eighteenth century they
were maintaining in the north of Ireland the stern
faith of Calvin. Besides following the teachings
of John Knox, they had a political faith devoted
to freedom, as opposed to the oppression exercised
by the English Crown. Unable to find peace at
home, they at last concluded to emigrate to the New
World. About 1720 the movement westward had
reached large proportions. Douglas Campbell says,
" ships enough could not be found to carry from
Ulster to America the men who were unwilling to
live except in the air of religious freedom." This
migration bears, at several points, an interesting
resemblance to the great Palatine influx from
which the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, as we
118
THE FIRST SETTLERS
have seen, had received their strongest tide of
population.
Mr. Campbell shows that the Scotch-Irish influx
continued half a century. Entire districts were
almost depopulated. Within a period of two years,
some 30,000 crossed the Atlantic. Many were
well-to-do farmers. Others had been bred in Scot-
tish universities. As a class, they were the equal of
any emigrants who in those times sailed out of
English harbors. To that Scotch-Irish emigration
America owed General Henry Knox, John Stark,
Anthony Wayne, John Sullivan, and George, James,
and DeWitt Clinton. From the same stock were
descended Patrick Henry and Daniel Boone, and
so were Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Hugh
McCulloch, and Horace Greeley. Of those who
landed in Boston from five ships in August, 17 10,
the larger portion went to New Hampshire, and in
their settlement revived the name of the Irish town
of Londonderry, memorable to them for its siege.
Others went to Worcester, and others to Maine.
From the New Hampshire settlement came the
men who built up Cherry Valley,* the first perma-
nent settlement within the domain of Otsego
County. John Lindesay having obtained in 1738
his patent of 18,000 acres, came into the country
at once with his wife, his father-in-law, Lieutenant
Congreve, and a few servants. Lindesay had been
Naval Officer of the Port of New York, as well as
* Cherry Valley then formed part of Albany County, but from Albany
in 1772 Tryon County was taken off and named in honor of the British
Governor of New York, William Tryon, only to be called Montgomery
County a few years later, after the patriot soldier who fell at Quebec.
Tryon County, as formed in 1772, embraced a large territory that
has since been divided into several counties — Otsego, Montgomery,
Herkimer, Fulton, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Oswego, Jefferson,
and parts of Delaware, Oneida, and Schoharie.
119
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Sheriff of Albany County. During the first winter
he suffered from want of food, but an Indian from
Oghwaga relieved his wants by bringing food from
the Mohawk Valley. Following him came a young
clergyman named Samuel Dunlop, whose acquaint-
ance Mr. Lindesay had made in New York City,
and who in 1741 induced several Scotch-Irish fami-
lies from Londonderry to emigrate to Mr. Linde-
say's patent. Among them were David Ramsey,
William Gait, William Dickson, and James Camp-
bell.* By these men were laid the foundations of
the Cherry Valley settlement which was to play so
conspicuous a part in the later history of the upper
Susquehanna.
It is believed that a log church was almost at
once erected near the present Phelan house, and that
Mr. Dunlop there opened a school. The local tra-
dition is that he often taught his boys to scan Ho-
mer and Virgil as they attended him while plough-
ing in the fields. The settlement grew slowly.
Ten years later only a few additional families — not
more than five — had come in; but in 1754 an im-
portant accession was obtained in the Harpers, who
came from Windsor, Conn. The father of the
Harpers had gone to Maine in 1720 with other
Scotch-Irish, and thence, owing to trouble with the
Indians, had removed to Massachusetts. Gould f
*James Campbell, the ancestor of Judge W. W. Campbell, the author
of the Annals, and of Douglas Campbell, was born at Londonderry, Ire-
land, in 1690, and was a son of William Campbell, of Campbelltown,
Argyleshire, Scotland. William Campbell, a cadet of the house of
Auchenbreck, engaged in Monmouth's rebellion, and escaped to Ireland,
where he served as a lieutenant-colonel at the siege of Londonderry.
James Campbell landed in Boston in 1728, and in 1735 removed to Lon-
donderry, N. H., and thence to Cherry Valley.
t Jay Gould, the celebrated New York millionnaire, wrote a History
of Delaware County just before he became of age, which was an enter-
prise supplementary to a map he had made of Delaware County. In
I20
THE FIRST SETTLERS
says they removed to Windsor in 1741. One of
the boys was John, who, about 1760, went back to
Connecticut to attend school at Lebanon, which was
near Windsor, and here he enjoyed the acquaint-
ance of an Indian boy whom he was afterward to
meet on this frontier in quite different circumstances
— Joseph Brant.
It was not until after 1763 that Cherry Valley
enjoyed any marked increase. With the English
conquest of the country now achieved, new confi-
dence inspired the men who wished to people the
fertile lands beyond the Hudson. In 1769 forty
or fifty families, mostly Scotch-Irish, were living in
the settlement, while smaller colonies in the same
neighborhood could count up as many more, a large
proportion of the latter being Germans, who had
come from Schoharie and the Mohawk.
The settlers of this period who went beyond the
head of the river found it necessary to employ certain
boats which had long been used by traders and mis-
sionaries. They were called " battoes," a corruption of
the French batteaux, and originally had been adopt-
ed as substitutes for the bark canoe, which was not
strong enough to bear the weight of heavy mer-
chandise. French traders had used them probably
for a half century before they were employed by the
Susquehanna pioneers. Those which English trad-
ers used were mostly built at Schenectady, white
pine boards being used. The bottoms were made
flat to adapt them to shallow water, and at each end
collecting his material he had valuable assistance from his friend S.
B. Champion, of the Bloomville Mirror. In the spring of 1856 Mr.
Gould had his manuscript ready for the printers and placed it in the
hands of a Philadelphia house. A few weeks later the printing house
was destroyed by fire and only a few proof-sheets of the book escaped
destruction. At Roxbury he courageously rewrote the book and it was
issued late in the same year.
121
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
they were sharp and higher than in the centre.
Their length was from twenty to twenty-five feet,
and the sides from twenty inches to two feet high.
In the centre they were three and a half feet wide.
Of these boats much has been read by all who are
familiar with narratives of pioneer life at that time.
Civilization had no more important tool.
Cooper, in his " Wyandotte," brings a family down
the river in one of these boats and up the Unadilla
to a stream that answers to Butternut Creek in
1765. He represents Captain Willoughby, with a
force of mechanics and laborers, as following the
Mohawk to Otsego Lake, from which the party
went in boats to the mouth of the Unadilla, "which
stream they ascended until they came to the small
river that ran through the captain's estate." In the
following spring the captain took his family out
from Albany. He made visits to " Edmeston, of
Mount Edmeston," and by the spring of 1775 tne
settlement numbered more than one hundred souls.
The ensuing story relates to the arrival of seventy
or eighty warriors, Mohawks and Onondagas, in
the autumn of 1776, and the dispersion of the set-
tlement to which, after the Revolution, the survivors
returned.
Fiction though all this is, it is a fairly accurate
picture of those times, in so far as pertains to dates,
locality, and events. We know that in 1765 Joa-
chim Van Valkenberg, whose family had been in
the Mohawk Valley forty years, settled at the mouth
of Schenevus Creek, where for many years he sup-
plied food and shelter to incoming pioneers. On
the Unadilla River, settlements had been attempted
even earlier, at least in the upper part of the valley,
which was entered by crossing the hills from the
122
THE FIRST SETTLERS
upper Mohawk. From the Oriskany patent in
1724, one Squire Brown, whose first name has been
lost, came with three or four families to occupy lands
not far from the confluence of the two branches of the
Unadilla, near where now is the village of Unadilla
Forks. But in the following year these families
were driven out by the Indians.
How soon another attempt was made is uncer-
tain, but we may assume that when missionary work
had been well begun at Oghwaga and in Oneida, the
way was opened to settlers. Soon after Colonel Ed-
meston obtained his patent, Percifer Carr, in his
employment, arrived with his family. He had sailed
from England in the same vessel as John Tunnicliffe,
ancestor of the well-known family of Richfield. This
was as early as 1765. Carr began a clearing, and to
him Cooper perhaps refers as one of those who com-
posed the small community at Mount Edmeston.
At South Edmeston is still preserved a clock which
Colonel Edmeston brought to this country from
England. To this locality in 1774 came Abel and
Gideon De Forest, who seem to have belonged to
the French Huguenot stock which had made still
earlier settlements on the northern part of Manhat-
tan Island, now known as Harlem.
The locality was not far from the scene of an in-
cident of the French War — German Flatts, where
in 175 1 had arisen a village of sixty dwellings and
about 300 souls. An attack was made on the settle-
ment by a French officer named Beletre on Novem-
ber 12, 1757. He aroused the settlers at three
o'clock in the morning, burned their buildings,
killed forty or fifty persons, and made prisoners of
about 130. Beletre, after killing all the cattle and
horses, hastily retreated, and when Lord Howe
123
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
came up from Schenectady he found " nothing but
an abandoned slaughter field." From this village,
either before its destruction or soon after, settlers
probably crossed the hills to the Unadilla — the dis-
tance being about ten miles.
The entire Mohawk Valley had then become a
fairly populous place, r rom which a family now and
then sought new land on the Susquehanna. In
1757 a French traveller between German Flatts and
the mouth of the Mohawk found 683 farm-houses
on the way, not including houses in the villages of
Canajoharie, Fort Hunter, and Schenectady, the lat-
ter town having 300. Many of these dwellings
were built of stone. Circumstances point to con-
temporary settlements on the Unadilla River above
its mouth. Several families which came in after
the Revolution are believed to have been here be-
fore it began. Patents having been issued, it was
almost inevitable that settlements should be begun.
Owners of patents desired first of all things to see
their lands occupied. Besides Scotch-Irish, Ger-
mans came. We know that when the war began,
some of the Unadilla settlers who fled before Brant,
went to German Flatts instead of Cherry Valley.
In Richfield Springs, on the Schuyler patent, settle-
ments as early as 1758 had been begun. Remains of
them were found near Schuyler's Lake * after the war.
A small improvement at the foot of the lake was
known as the Herkimer farm, and the creek at the
same place also bore the Herkimer name. Near the
site of Richfield Springs had settled the family of
Tunnicliffe on an estate to which they gave the name
* Now called Canadurango Lake. It lies near the village of Rich-
field Springs. On a map of 1756 it is called Canadurango Lake, which
shows that its original name has been restored to it.
124
THE FIRST SETTLERS
of The Oaks, used afterward as a name for Oaks
Creek.* At the head of Otsego Lake, as early as
1762, a settlement had been planted, one of the
men being Nicholas Lowe of New York, who for a
time, according to Richard Smith, lived on the place.
At the foot of the lake white men probably had
lived at much earlier dates f than these — for the
most part traders — and in 1761 John Christopher
Hartwick had obtained his patent to the lands that
still bear his name, but his deed from the Indians
was dated in 1752. Mr. Hartwick, in attempting
to take possession in 1761, settled at the foot
of Otsego Lake, only to discover that this place
was not included in his patent. In consequence,
his actual settlement further south was delayed
several years. In 1800 Mr. Hartwick committed
suicide.
Throughout Otsego the Fort Stanwix treaty
stimulated immigration at once. Here now was a
vast and fertile territory which might be peacefully
occupied. For two or three years the surveyor's
chain and rod became familiar instruments. Care-
* Levi Beardsley's Reminiscences. Mr. Beardsley read law in Cherry
Valley, where he devoted some thirty years to its practice. He served
in the Assembly, and was twice elected State Senator, being president
of the Senate in his last term. Mr. Beardsley, who had accumulated a
large property, lost heavily on land investments — losses which he might
have borne had he not become further involved by indorsements. Re-
moving to Columbus, O., where he had a farm, he again lost through
fire. Disposing of the land, he returned East, and spent his old age in
New York City, where his Reminiscenses were published — a large
volume filled with matter of much interest in Otsego County. It is
written in an elevated and flexible style, and reveals an understanding at
once vigorous and generous. It has a charm not always found in the
writings of old men who have met with misfortune — being tolerant and
sympathetic as well as intellectual, and it has not a trace of bitterness
toward any human being. The reader closes it with a feeling that its
author was an inspiring example of the old man beautiful.
t Cooper in The Deerslayer places them there in 1743-45. But
these must have been traders.
125
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
ful and elaborate maps were drawn and parchment
deeds executed.
Contemporary with the treaty were new settlers at
the two ends of Otsego Lake, the Springfield one
being occupied by Captain Augustin Prevost, who
had served in the British army in Jamaica, and the
one at the southern end by Prevost's father-in-law,
Colonel Croghan. Captain Prevost was making
improvements in May, 1769. He had built a log-
house, had cleared sixteen or eighteen acres of land,
and erected a saw-mill, "the carpenter's bill of which,"
says Smith, "came to $150." He had arrived early
during the previous year, taking up a house which
Nicholas Lowe had occupied. Sir William John-
son described him in 1769 as having " a good
property." Three miles west of Prevost a Mr.
Young, before 1769, had erected a saw-mill, from
which Prevost probably got his lumber. Prevost
brought in several families and employed them
in making improvements.* Between him and Cherry
Valley existed a German settlement of ten families
who had come into the country in 1767. A man
named Myers kept a tavern and established a pot-
tery in what is now the town of Middlefield. Twelve
families were living there in 1769.
Colonel Croghan, in the summer of 1769, had car-
penters and other men at work building two dwellings
and five or six other structures. While attempting
to colonize his extensive tract, he lived on it for a
few years with his family. About this time a man
named Cully, from Cherry Valley, made a settle-
* At the time Springfield was burned, in 1778, the following were the
heads of families who were driven out : George Canouts, Isaac Collier,
William Staneel, George Mayer, Conrad Picket, Henry Bratt, David
Teygert, Adolph Wallrath, Isaac Quack, John Spallsbery, Jonah Heath,
Henry Deygert, George Bush, and a Mrs. Davis.
126
THE FIRST SETTLERS
ment at the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek. Others
in the same neighborhood were named Carr and
Burrows. In the town of Maryland, on the Sche-
nevus Creek, farms had been taken up, and the
place had received its present name as early as
1769. The same appears to be true of Worcester.
Contemporary with Croghan was Colonel Staats
Long Morris, who came to view and make plans for
the Morris patent. With him came his wife, the
Dowager Duchess of Gordon, their route into the
country having been from Catskill over a road to
the Schoharie or Charlotte River, and thence to the
Susquehanna. Colonel Morris in 1770 had induced
settlers to make their homes on his tract ; among
them Andre Renouard at Elm Grove, and Louis
and Paschal Franchot in Louisville, which they
named after the French King. The Franchots had
recently come to America from France. In 1892
their last male descendant in the county died at
Morris. Other Frenchmen appear to have followed.
Cooper makes Leather Stocking refer to " one or two
Frenchmen that squatted on the flats and married
squaws." In 1777 followed Benjamin Lull with
several grown-up sons, and then Jonathan Moore
from Dutchess County. In the same year Ebenezer
Knapp took up his home on Butternut Creek,
and Increase Thurston soon followed him. Other
families on this stream were named Brooks, Garret,
and Johnson. The settlements formed by these
men were known collectively as the Old England
District.
With the survey of the Otego patent in 1769
preparations were made for a large immigration.
With Smith and Wells, who were from Burlington,
N. J., had come Joseph Biddle, William Ridgway,
127
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
and John Hicks. The survey completed, they
began to bring into the country goods and building
material. One of those whom they induced to settle
was Joseph Sleeper, a Quaker preacher from their
own State, who built the first saw-mill in what is
now Laurens,* and also the first grist-mill. For
erecting his grist-mill, Sleeper received an additional
gift of ioo acres of land lying on both sides of Fac-
tory Creek, a tributary of the Otego. Sleeper was
not only a preacher, but a surveyor, millwright, car-
penter, stone-mason, and blacksmith, and built
his mills himself. His patrons often lived thirty
miles away. Sleeper intended to plant a Quaker
colony around his mills, but the Revolution inter-
fered with the enterprise. Brant was a frequent visi-
tor at his house. Sleeper lived on friendly terms with
all the Indians. William Ferguson belongs to this
period in the settlement of Laurens. He was from
Cherry Valley, as was also Joseph Mayall, who ar-
rived in 1 77 1 and was followed by others. Mayall
had been employed by Smith and Wells as a chain-
bearer, and afterward in the war gained repute as a
scout. By trade he was a weaver, and it is related
that he used standing trees as supports for his
loom.
Richard Smith was a frequent visitor to the Otego
patent after making the survey — for once in 1773
and again in 1777. In 1770 he took title to 4,000
acres lying on both sides of the Otsdawa Creek, a
* Named after Henry or John Laurens. Henry Laurens was presi-
dent of Congress in 1777-78. He was afterward captured by the Brit-
ish, imprisoned in the Tower of London, and exchanged for Lord Corn-
wallis. In 1782, with Jay and Franklin, he negotiated the treaty of
peace. He was a native of South Carolina and died in 1792. His son,
John Laurens, was aide and secretary to Washington, taking part in every
battle of the Revolution in which Washington's immediate command
was engaged.
128
THE FIRST SETTLERS
few miles above its mouth. He owned another tract
on Otego Creek, in the town of Laurens, on which
he built a large house to which he gave the name of
Smith Hall. This house was still standing in 1896.
During his tour of the valley, he had for guide
Joseph Brant, whose wife and child went with the
party. Smith was a brother of Samuel Smith, the
historian of New Jersey. He was elected a mem-
ber of the Continental Congress, and served until
1776, when his health failed.
Near the mouth of Otego Creek about 1772
settled Henry Scramling, who took up 1,000 acres
on both sides of the Susquehanna, and during the
war was a second lieutenant in the Tryon County
militia. Near the mouth of the Charlotte settled
Henry Young, whose family appear to have been at
Worcester, Mass., with the Rev. William John-
ston thirty years before. Henry Scramling had
two brothers, David and George, who came with
him, either before the war or on his return after it.
Some of the Scramling lands have never passed from
possession of the family, who originally were from
Fort Plain. George Scramling kept the first tavern
in Oneonta, on a site where afterward stood the
Peter van Woert residence. David Young was a
brother-in-law of Henry Scramling, and with him
came his brother, John Young. Another early
Oneonta name is Stoughton Alger, who lived on
land now known as the Bingham and Pierce farms,
and John van Derwerker, who became a captain in
Colonel Harper's regiment in the Revolution. Van
Derwerker built the first grist-mill in the town, on
what are now called the Morrell Flatts, remains of it
being still visible. His daughter became the wife
of John Young, who kept a hotel for many years.
129
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
The most of these Oneonta families were from the
Mohawk Valley.
Captain Peter Bundy, of Salem, Mass., is said to
have come to lands now a part of Otego in 1777,
which is probably a mistake for an earlier date, as
the war was then in progress. He settled here again
after the war. Mr. Bundy brought a family of chil-
dren with him, his household goods being conveyed
on a sled shod with wood and drawn by oxen.
Near Otego village a family named Ogden settled.
They were from Saratoga County, where they had
lived for perhaps ten years, and had a son named
David who joined Colonel Harper's regiment in the
Revolution as second lieutenant.
To the Scotch-Irish of Cherry Valley we proba-
bly owe the coming of the men who settled in what
was long known as the paper-mill district of Una-
dilla. One of them was Dr. McWhorter, who as
late as 1 840 was living in Cortland County, then
an octogenarian. He told Harvey Baker he had
" studied medicine and commenced its practice in
Unadilla " while that town was in Albany County,
which fixes the date as before 1772. From this we
may infer that at that time settlers had arrived in
considerable numbers.
By the early summer of 1777 it is certain that
this part of Unadilla had become what for the time
was a village. A map of the valley made in the
following year by Captain Gray indicates a number
of dwellings as then standing, and calls the place
Unadilla Town. Some of these families seem to
have occupied farms afterward known as the Gould
Bacon, Bundy, Deyo, McMaster, Arms, and Nor-
man Foster farms. Soon after the Fort Stanwix
treaty, three families were here, their names being
130
THE FIRST SETTLERS
Woodcock, Sluyter (or Sliter), and Dingman. The
Sliters came in 1770, and were from Poughkeepsie,
where their ancestor had settled in 1663. Others
soon came. Mr. Johnston, the founder of Sidney,
induced families to follow him from the Mohawk
Valley and others from Cherry Valley. One of
these was his son-in-law, David McMaster, who
afterward, if not then, took up a home on Unadilla
soil. Before the war, and probably in 1772, Rob-
ert McGinnis acquired title to lots 61 and 63 of the
Wallace patent and settled on them. He was after-
ward active in the British cause.
The family of Harper, of Cherry Valley, who
were to become the stanchest patriots during the
Border Wars, along with seventeen other persons,
secured a patent in what was afterward named Har-
persneld. It comprised 22,000 acres. * John Har-
per, the principal proprietor, in 1770 went over to
the head of the Charlotte with his wife and a sur-
veyor whom Governor Tryon had sent out. While
the men were engaged in making the survey, Mrs.
Harper erected a rude log-hut with bark roof, and
spent several days and nights in it alone. The
entire family came over from Cherry Valley in the
following spring. Besides John, the father, and
Abigail, his wife, there were nine children, includ-
ing William, who became a member of the Provin-
cial Congress; James, who took part in the war;
Mary, who was made a prisoner at the massacre of
Cherry Valley and carried into captivity ; John, who
held a colonel's commission during the Revolution ;
Joseph, who fought against the Indians in Harpers-
* The title-deed to this tract long remained in the possession of the
Harper family. In 1861 it was destroyed in a fire at West Harpersfield.
The seal attached to it was of the usual kind for that period, a thick piece
of wax, round and large as a tea-saucer.
131
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
field and Schoharie, and Alexander, who fought at
Joseph's side and was made a captain. After the
war Alexander was a prominent land-owner in Del-
aware County, and later went to Ohio, where he
founded a place called Harpersfield.
Of all the Scotch-Irish who settled on the upper
Susquehanna we have the fullest account of the Rev.
William Johnston. He was a native of Mullow
Malo, Tyrone, had been seven years a student at
Edinburgh University, and came to America before
1736, when under twenty-five years of age. He
in time found his way to Worcester, Mass., where
some of his countrymen formed a Presbyterian
church, with him for pastor ; but from the Congre-
gationalists they met with violent opposition. When
they had nearly completed a church edifice, it was
attacked at night, chopped down and destroyed.
An appeal for redress was met with reply that Mr.
Johnston's ordination was " disorderly." Permission
to rebuild was refused. The whole body of Scotch-
Irish then left the place, many of them going with
Mr. Johnston to Windham, near Londonderry,
N. H., where in 1747 Mr. Johnston was made pas-
tor of a young church, holding its first meetings in
a barn. He served the church with " great faith-
fulness " until 1752, when, for want of proper sup-
port, he laid down his charge. At Windham he
married Anna Witter Cummings, daughter of a
physician in the British service, and said to have
had an income of $600 a year, which was cut off
during the Revolution.
From Windham Mr. Johnston found his way to
Schenectady County, and with him went some of the
Scotch-Irish. In that region he preached many
years. That he knew the men of Cherry Valley is
132
THE FIRST SETTLERS
clear enough, and that he should have acquired an
interest in the Susquehanna region was natural, for
at Schenectady lived many of the best-known fur
traders, and not far from the place was the home
of Sir William Johnson. Accordingly, in the sum-
mer of 1770 he came in by way of Cherry Valley.
Accompanied by an Indian guide he went as far
down as Oghwaga, where were missionaries with
whose work he was familiar. He no doubt bore
some message from Sir William Johnson, and
through Johnson's influence aimed to establish
friendly relations with the red men. He described
the Indians as living on venison, fish, beans, and
corn. Deer existed by the thousands and fish by
the hundred thousand.
Returning to Schenectady, Mr. Johnston, from
Mr. Banyar, " purchased a tract of 640 acres situ-
ated at the flats one mile east of the Unadilla
Forks" (sic) for $1 per acre. On 250 acres
of this land was white pine timber of the largest
size. In the following year he went back to his
land with his son Witter. In the autumn he con-
cluded to leave his son with the three friendly Ind-
ian families living at the place, and returned to com-
plete arrangements for bringing his wife and other
children into the country. During the summer he
and Witter had erected a log-house sixteen by twen-
ty-two on the west side of what was afterward known
as Brant Hill, and had cleared some land. Besides
his wife he brought back in the spring four daugh-
ters and his son Hugh, born in Duanesburgh in
1763.
Other families soon followed them. Captain
Gray's map shows for this settlement two mills
which John Carr built on what is now known as
l 33
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
the Baxter mill site, near the mouth of Carr's Creek,
the iron for these mills having been carried on his
back by Carr himself from Otsego Lake. Another
building at the same place was John Carr's dwell-
ing, while farther west were a number of houses,
one of which was Mr. Johnston's. In the account
that has come down to us of the settlement at the
time of Brant's visit in 1777, Brant's words of warn-
ing are : " I will give these five families forty-eight
hours to get away. So long they shall be safe."
By "five families " Brant meant those who would
not declare themselves for the King. Dingman,
Carr, and Woodcock were Tories. Of the five
" rebel " families, we know the name of only two —
Johnston and Sliter.
When the church at Worcester, Mass., was dis-
persed by the Congregationalists, Lincoln says many
of its numbers " emigrated to the colony on the
banks of the Unadilla in New York," from which
it would appear that they were in advance of Mr.
Johnston by many years. It is more probable that
during the thirty years following the dispersion, they
had remained with him in Windham and the Mo-
hawk Valley. Three years after the Johnstons ar-
rived, a young Indian poisoned himself from disap-
pointment in love. He was buried in the ground
set apart by the Johnstons for a cemetery, and his
grave was the first ever opened in that ground. Mr.
Johnston read a Christian burial-service over this
young heathen child of the forest. A baptismal
bowl of old blue china, which Mr. Johnston brought
to America from Scotland, was in use for many years
in the church at Sidney, and is now in possession of
John Henry Johnston.
But the town of Sidney had been settled at another
134
THE FIRST SETTLERS
point. Several families had taken up farms on the
site of the future Wattles's Ferry. Sometimes the
place was known as Albout, or Ouleout,* and some-
times as the Scotch Settlement. The earliest au-
thentic date connected with it does not go back of
the beginning of the war, but its origin seems to
date from near the time of Mr. Johnston's arrival.
These men undoubtedly came from Cherry Valley.
None of their names has come down to us. Even
the part which they took in the war is in doubt.
Priest says they went to Cherry Valley, which im-
plies that they were Whigs, but another statement
is that they became Tories and went to Canada. It
is not unlikely that both parties were represented in
this little village.
The mills on Carr's Creek were not important
mills, except as the earliest industries in all that re-
gion. Some years later Abraham Fuller built larger
ones on the Ouleout at East Sidney, where now
stand the mills long known as Lloyd's. The date
given for this enterprise is 1778, which is, perhaps,
too early, but if correct it shows that along this
stream were many farms then in cultivation.
The foregoing is the available record of pioneers
who invaded the Susquehanna before the great con-
flict. The settlements they made marked the far-
thermost advance westward in the province of New
York. If we bear in mind the Fort Stanwix line, we
can understand why the first settlement in Bingham-
ton was not made until 1787 ; the first in Ithaca not
until 1784; in Elmira, not until 1787 ; in Auburn,
not until 1793, and in Buffalo not until 1794.
* Written Aulyoulet in 1768 and translated for Dr. Beauchamp as A
Continuing Voice. In 1779 a stream "east of Unadilla " was called the
Owarioneck, which meant Where the Teacher Lives. This was, per-
haps, the Indian name of Carr's Creek.
135
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Therein lies the special eminence of the upper Sus-
quehanna lands as an old New York frontier.
By these men was initiated on this frontier that
perpetual warfare of man against nature to which
an actual end never will come so long as " water
runs and grass grows." It is a familiar story of
pioneer life and has often been described — that first
warfare waged with the axe and fire against count-
less numbers of towering trees covering hills and
bottom-lands with primeval growths. On sites
where other giants had grown up and died of old
age in the long and uncounted past, the pioneer, by
felling these prides of the forest, literally cut out the
space whereon to rear his humble home, its roof of
bark, its walls of logs, its floor the bare earth.
Gradually he extended his cleared area and was
able to plant corn and wheat, the blackened piles of
half-burnt logs and the enormous stumps he could
not extract making later in the season the only
blemishes on the golden surface of his autumn fields.
Beyond his clearing lay the narrow forest-borders of
his home. From the smallness of his first expanse
of cleared land, sprang a feature that became familiar
to many frontier homes. It was well into the fore-
noon ere the sun could reach his cabin-door, and it
was early in the second half of the day when the last
rays of light vanished from his western windows,
casting dark shadows from the adjacent forest over
his small domain.
As time went on, the pioneer's problem was how
to get rid of vast accumulations of timber in fields
where he had felled the pine, the oak, and the maple.
Enormous bonfires were lighted, and from the re-
mains pot and pearl ashes were obtained. These
fires made stirring scenes to look upon and must
136
THE FIRST SETTLERS
have been a chief source of heightened pleasure for
the small boy. On hill-sides as well as in valleys,
conflagrations were lighted, and so vast were some of
them as to brighten and make resplendent at night
for miles around the hills across the valleys, the
waters of streams, and the azure sky above them all.
Not less familiar were the noises made by falling
trees and the resounding axe-blows that were echoed
back from neighboring hills.
137
Journal of a Tour in 1769
nr ]
1 :
iHE journal of Smith and Wells gives us not
only an authentic description of settlements,
but many other facts important to a history
of the pioneers. Smith and his companion had left
their home early in May for New York, and had
proceeded up the Hudson in a sloop to Albany,
and by the Mohawk to Canajoharie, or " to Scram-
lin's, which is nearly opposite to Col. Fry's." The
journal often shows us where roads had been opened.
The condition of the frontier roads proves, as nothing
else can, how deep an impression had been made on
the wilderness.
First of all roads to the Susquehanna, was the
Cherry Valley one from Canajoharie, by way of Bow-
man's Creek, which had been begun soon after the
founding of the settlement in 1740. A quarter of a
century later Smith described it as from the Mohawk
" the only wagon road to Lake Otsego." As early
as 1768 there existed a road westward from Catskill
to the Susquehanna, which we must accept as the
beginning of a turnpike completed more than thirty
years afterward. While at Catskill in May, Smith
learned that the Duchess of Gordon and Colonel
Morris had just gone by that route " to Cherry
Valley and the Susquehanna with two wagons."
On reaching Cherry Valley himself, Smith was in-
formed that " there is a route from Kaatskill across to
this line, namely : from Kaatskill to Akery, 8 miles ;
to Batavia, 1 1 ; to Red Kill, 8 ; from Red Kill to
a lake at the head of the Mohawks, or main branch
■38
JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN 1769
of the river Delaware,* ia, and to Otego about 16 ;
in all 56 miles." At " Yokums " Smith learned from
Mr. van Valkenburg of a path to Schoharie, " the
same which Col. Morris and the Duchess of Gordon
lately took on horseback with their retinue."
At this period a primitive road also existed from
Cherry Valley westward to Springfield, while an-
other went to the settlement at Middlefield. Over
the route from the Mohawk to Cherry Valley went
many Connecticut people who, before the Revolu-
tion, settled in the Wyoming Valley. With the set-
tlements that followed the Fort Stanwix treaty, came
roads in various parts of the country. In 1777
there existed not only a footpath down the valley
from Otsego Lake, but " some thing of a road along
the river." f Another ran from the upper Otego
Creek Valley to Otsego Lake. Richard Smith, Na-
thaniel Edwards, and others built it in the summer
of 1773. The lake at Richfield was then connected
with Otsego Lake, and elsewhere forests had been
opened and hills crossed in order to provide routes
shorter than those which followed the courses of
streams. These roads, however, were scarcely more
than narrow lines of clearing through the wilder-
ness. They represented one of the two extremes
in roads, of which the other is represented by mac-
adam and asphalt. But in the Smith journal we find
many other statements that light up the history of
what to this generation is an unknown period in
Susquehanna history, and among them these :
13th May, 1769 — At Scramlin's we turned off from the
river, pursuing a S. W. course for Cherry Valley. . . .
* Summit Lake is probably here referred to, but it is the head of the
Charlotte instead of the Delaware.
t Affidavit of John Dresler, in the " Brant MSS." of the Draper Col-
lection.
139
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
We met, on their return, four wagons which had carried
some of Col. Croghan's goods to his seat at the foot of
Lake Otsego. The carriers tell us they were paid 30 shil-
lings a load each for carrying from Scramlin's to Capt.
Prevost's, who is now improving his estate at the head of
the lake. . . . There are farms and new settlements
at a short distance all the way from the Mohawk river. In
Cherry Valley there are about 40 or 50 families, mostly of
those called Scotch-Irish, and as many more in the vicinity
consisting of Germans and others.
14th — Being Sunday we attended Major Wells and his
family to the new Presbyterian meeting house, which is large
and quite finished, and heard a sermon from the Rev. Mr.
Delap (sic), an elderly, courteous man who has lived in this
settlement about 20 years. The congregation though not
large, made a respectable appearance, several of them being
genteely dressed. From our lodgings, about the center of
the valley, down to the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek they
reckon 12 or 14 miles, and in freshet one may pass in canoe
from the house to Maryland. There are 3 grist mills and one
saw mill, and divers carpenters and other tradesmen. . . .
1 6th — This morning we proceeded in Col. Croghan's
batteau, large and sharp at each end, down the lake. . . .
This situation commands a view of the whole lake and is
in that respect superior to Prevost's. Here we found a
body of Indians, mostly from Ahquahga, come to pay their
devoirs to the Col. Some of them speaks a little English.
We lodged at Col. Croghan's, and next morning
got all ready to go on the survey, Robert Picken, our other
surveyor, being gone down to wait upon the Duchess of
Gordon and Col. Morris, whose tract adjoins to our patent.
17th — We departed at 9 o'clock with two pack horses
carrying provisions and baggage and one riding horse with
men on chairs, carriers and servants, and two Mohawk Ind-
ians as guides, one of them Joseph Brant.* . . . Our
* Brant's home at this time was in Canajoharie, where he had lived
since returning from the West in 1764. Theophilus Chamberlain, the mis-
sionary, when sick from exposure, had been Brant's guest, and says he
found him " exceeding kind."
HO
JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN 1769
Indians in half an hour erected a house capable of shelter-
ing us from the wet, for it rained most of the day and night
succeeding.
Several days were spent in making the Otego
survey and then the party returned to Colonel Crogh-
an's house at the lake, from which in a few days
they departed on their return home. They chose
as their route the Susquehanna to Oghwaga and
thence went to Cookoze on the Delaware, whence
they proceeded to Easton, Trenton, and Burling-
ton. Following are the most interesting points
concerning the journey from the lake to Oghwaga :
May 25th — We finished and launched our canoe into
the lake. She is 32 feet 7 inches in length and 2 feet 4
inches broad.
May 27th — We engaged Joseph Brant, the Mohawk, to
go down with us to Aquahga. Last night a drunken Indian
came and kissed Col. Croghan and me very joyously. Here
are natives of different Nations almost continually. They
visit the Deputy Superintendent as dogs to the bone, for
what they can get. John Davies, a young Mohawk, one
of the retinue, who has been educated at Dr. Wheelock's
school in Connecticut, now quitted our service to march
against the Catawbas.
May 29th — Myself, with Joseph Brant, his wife and child,
and another young Mohawlc named James, went down in
the new canoe to our upper corner,* whilst the rest of the
company travelled by land. This river from the lake Otsego
hither is full of logs and trees and short crooked turns, and
the navigation for canoes and batteaux requires dexterity.
May 31st — At 7 o'clock we decamped for Skenever's
and hit the Susquehanna near two miles below. Then fol-
lowing the common Indian path we arrived at the landing
opposite to Yokum's House at 1 o'clock. He is a Dutch-
* A mile or two above the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek.
141
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
man, but speaks good English, pays no rent as yet to Liv-
ingston, built the house, but found the orchard already
planted by the Indians, who also planted one at the mouth
of Otego. . . . The trees are ever tall and lofty,
sometimes two hundred feet high and straight, but not pro-
portionally large in circumference, except some white pines
and a few particular trees of other kinds.* . . . In the
afternoon we went over the river to Yokum's House. The
orchard planted by the natives is irregular and not in rows.
The Indian graves in the orchards are not placed in any
regular order nor shaped in one fashion. One of them was
a flat pyramid of about three feet high, trenched round.
Another was flatted like a tomb, and a third something like
our form.
Yokum's Indian corn is planted but not yet come up.
The Indians are not troublesome to him, though they often
call at his house. He obtains his necessaries chiefly from
Cherry Valley. Col. Morris and the Duchess lodged three
nights at his house two or three weeks ago with a large train
of attendants. They went over to view their tract at Una-
dilla, or, as some call it, Tunaderrah. Here we met with
one Dorn, a Dutchman, with his family from Canajoharie
going to settle at Wywomoc.f He informs us that 130
families from his neighborhood on the Mohawk river have
actually bought there and are about to remove.
June 1 st — Messrs Wells and Biddle this day marked out
a path to the intended store house on the creek Onoyaren-
ton. . . . This evening our bark canoe being finished, at
one half after five o'clock myself, Joseph Brant, his wife and
child embarked in her with some loading, and Mr. Wells
with James, the other Indian, in a small wood canoe contain-
ing most of the Indians' baggage and our own. Enjoying a
fine serene evening we descended the stream for two hours,
about ten miles, to a bark hut, where we found a fire
* Eleven years after writing his journal, Smith added to the above
statement the following note : " Some years afterwards John Sleeper and
myself measured a birch tree growing in his meadow on the borders of
Otego Creek and found it twenty-six feet in circumference."
■j- Wyoming.
142
JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN 1769
burning. We passed the Adiquetinge on the left and the
Onoyarenton on the right.
June 2nd — A bear came this morning near to us and was
pursued by Brant and his dog, who, after some chase brought
him in. This Mohawk it seems is a considerable farmer,
possessing horses and cattle and one hundred acres of rich land
at Canajoharie. He says the Mohawks have lately followed
Husbandry more than formerly. In his excursion after the
bear he says he was on the Onoyarenton and saw some
good flats there. In an hour after our departure we arrived
at the old held near the mouth of Otego, where we met
William Ridgway.
We dined here in company with Mr. William Harper
and Mr. Campbell, the surveyor, who are now running out
Harper's patent. Ridgway and Hicks were likewise pres-
ent. This field had been formerly planted by the Indians
with corn and apple trees. A few of the latter remain
scattered about In three hours and three
quarters from the mouth of Otego we reached a place on
the East shore where we encamped. . . . Joseph be-
ing unwell, took some tea of the Sassafras root and slept in
the open air.
June 3rd — We set out about seven o'clock, and in two
hours we arrived at a small village of Mohiccons consisting
of two houses on the right hand and three on the left, a
mile above Unadilla. Here we went on shore and perceived
the huts to be wretched and filled with women and children.
They have cows and hogs and a little land cleared, with a
garden fenced in and Indian corn planted very slovenly.
Among the grass the cows were large and fat.
At this village we left our wood canoe and engaged a
good looking old Indian named Una to take us down in his
canoe, and pilot over to the Delaware, which is his hunting
country. He took a quarter of an hour to dress himself, his
wife and little Son, and then we all embarked. These vil-
lagers could not speak English.
At one o'clock we arrived at an Oneida village of four
or five houses, called the great Island or Cunnahunter.
H3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
The men were absent, but a number of pretty children
amused themselves with shooting arrows at a mark. The
houses resembled great old barns. One squaw in the canoe
suckles her son, though he seems to be between two and
three years old. We saw two apple trees before a door of
this village. . . . Forty minutes after three o'clock
we passed by two Indian houses on the left, and just before
us saw some Indians setting fire to the woods. Several
single huts are seated on such spots, and some are now build-
ing houses, and apple trees are seen by these huts.
At five o'clock we entered Ahquhaga, an Oneida town of
fifteen or sixteen big houses, just at the moment of the
transit of Venus, which Mr. Wells observed with a teles-
cope he brought for that purpose. We took our lodgings
with the Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Moseley. . . . This village
has a suburb over the river on the Western side. Here is
a small wooden fortress built some years ago by Captain
Wells of Cherry Valley, but now used as a meeting house.
Each house possesses a paltry garden, wherein
they plant corn, beans, watermelons, potatoes, cucumbers,
muskmelons, cabbage, French turnips, some apple trees,
salad, parsnips, and other plants. There are now two plows
in the town, together with cows, hogs, fowls, and horses,
which they sell cheap. We found the inhabitants civil
and sober.
June 4th — Ahquhaga contains about 140 souls, and the
Tuscarora town (three miles below) about the same num-
ber. At the last named place there is a shad fishery com-
mon to the people of Ahquhaga also. They tie bushes to-
gether so as to reach over the river, sink them with stones
and haul them around by canoes. All persons present, in-
cluding strangers, such is their laudable hospitality, have an
equal division of the fish. . . . Some of the women
wear silver brooches, each of which passes for a shilling, and
are as current among the Indians as money. Brant's wife
had several tier of them in her dress to the amount perhaps
of ten or fifteen pounds. . . . Brant was dressed in a suit
of blue broadcloth, as his wife was in a calico or chintz gown.
144
PART IV
The Border Wars Begun
1776-1777
Causes that Led to the Wars
i 774-1 777
WHILE the pioneers continued to take up
land, and the missionaries pursued their
labors, strained relations between the
colonies and the mother-land advanced to the point
of rupture. Even if war with England were to
come, few anticipated that this remote and secluded
land would be one of its scenes. But in a few
years the Susquehanna settlers were all driven from
their homes. Forest lands which their toil had
turned into cultivated fields, nature was soon to be-
gin her irresistible and mysterious work of restoring
to the wild and primeval state.
When Sir William Johnson died, in 1774, he had
seen more than a single warning that a storm was
gathering in the sky, and that it might soon break
in fury over the whole land. He had lived through
the bitter years of the Stamp Act and its repeal ;
had observed the hostility engendered by the arri-
val of General Gage in Boston ; had known of the
Battle of Golden Hill and the Boston Massacre,
and a few months before dying had heard of the
casting of tea into Boston Harbor. Possessed as he
was of a vast domain, and bound to the English
Government by close political and personal ties, the
situation may well have been the sternest that his
strong and sagacious mind ever was called upon to
face. His death has been attributed to suicide, but
147
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
this theory, which would account for its suddenness
and the lack of information as to its cause, has never
been well authenticated.
As the breach widened, it was seen that in Tryon
County lived hundreds of patriots, and none more
stanch than the Scotch-Irish of the Susquehanna,
to whom hostility to England was a passion already
strong, through inheritance. With the call for a
Continental Congress to meet in September, 1774,
prompt sympathy was shown. In the Palatine dis-
trict, Colonel Guy Johnson, who had succeeded to
Sir William's office, in vain endeavored to turn the
current. In spite of him, the Palatine patriots, in
August, a month after Sir William's death, openly
declared for the Congress and for " the undeniable
privilege to be taxed only with our own consent,
given by ourselves or our representatives." In
Canajoharie and German Flatts the people were
almost unanimous in support of these sentiments.
Late in April, 1775, came news of great import from
Boston. The fight at Lexington had occurred, and
at Concord " the embattled farmers " again had met
the red coats.
As the British had lost 273 men, and the patriots
only 103, here was a grave warning. Such was the
alarm, that in May, Colonel Johnson's followers
actually believed the Colonel was " in great fear of
being taken by the Bostonians." In consequence
Johnson began to fortify at Johnstown, but the men
of Cherry Valley, unawed by his course, held a
stirring meeting in their church. Not only grown
men and women, but children, attended it, the chief
orator being Thomas Spencer, an Indian half-breed
interpreter, whom Campbell describes as speaking
" in a strain of rude though impassioned elo-
148
CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS
quence." * In Harpersfield, a few months later, at
the house of John Harper, a vigilance committee
was formed, and the Palatine patriots sent a letter
to the Albany committee declaring that they were
resolved " to be free or die." f
Not only in Tryon County, but in Boston and
elsewhere, the Americans had been prompt to realize
the important part which the Iroquois might play if
the quarrel came to a clash of arms. Steps to secure
their sympathies were taken as early as 1774. The
Mohawks were approached through the Stock-
bridge Indians, and Mr. Kirkland was depended
on to look after the Oneidas. Communication with
Brant was opened by his old teacher, Dr. Whee-
lock, but it led to a response as unsatisfactory as it
was characteristic. Brant said he had not forgotten
the prayers he had heard at Lebanon, that they all
might " learn to fear God and honor the King."
Nor did the British overlook the Indians. Kirk-
land wrote from Cherry Valley, in the winter of
1774-75 that Colonel Johnson had received orders
" to remove the dissenting ministers from the Six
Nations until the difficulty between Great Britain
and the colonies was settled." Colonel Johnson
had already interfered with Kirkland's work, and
was " unreasonably jealous."
The current of opinion, much as he sought to
check it, steadily advanced in a direction hostile to
Colonel Johnson. Late in May, 1 775, he convened
at Guy Park, his residence near Amsterdam, a con-
*The active men in Cherry Valley included John Moore, Samuel
Clyde, Samuel Campbell, James Scott, Samuel Dunlop, Robert Wells,
James Richey, and James Moore.
t Gould estimates the population of Harpersfield at this time as about
fifty, which seems too low. No more than Stone and Campbell did
Gould understand the extent to which the valley had been invaded be-
fore the war.
149
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
ference with the Indians, mostly Mohawks, to
which came thirty chiefs and warriors from Oghwaga
and other Susquehanna villages. He had now in
readiness a domestic force of some 500 men, mainly
Scotch Highlanders of the Catholic faith, and over
them in command he placed Colonel John Butler.*
The council soon adjourned, to meet at Cosby's
Manor, near German Flatts, but from this point,
during the summer, Colonel Johnson and his follow-
ers removed to Fort Stanwix. The current against
him had become too strong everywhere, and when,
late in June, he heard of the fight at Bunker Hill,
he had no heart further to prolong resistance. Be-
fore the month ended, he reached Oswego, and
thence soon went to Canada. Campbell says few
of the Mohawks ever returned to their homes on
the banks of the stream that perpetuates their name.
They abandoned the graves of their ancestors and
never again did their council-fires burn in that val-
ley.
In July, 1775, when Colonel Johnson and the
Mohawks reached Montreal, they had an interview
with Sir Guy Carleton and Sir Frederick Haldi-
mand. Brant, in 1803, declared that at this inter-
view Haldimand said to the Indians : " Now is the
time for you to help the King. The war has begun.
Assist the King now, and you will find it to your
advantage. Go now and fight for your possessions,
and whatever you lose of your property during the
* John Butler was a native of Connecticut, but had lived for many
years in the Mohawk Valley. Under Sir William Johnson he had served
as Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and in the Niagara cam-
paign of 1759 and the Montreal expedition of 1760 commanded the Ind-
ians under Johnson. He had large interests in land, but these posses-
sions were confiscated after the war, and he returned to Canada. The
English Government granted him a pension of $3,500 a year, with 5,000
acres of land.
I50
CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS
war, the King will make up to you when peace re-
turns." Only the Mohawks seem to have been
favorable to these proposals at that time, and not all
of them, since the Lower Castle Mohawks, of whom
Little Abraham was the chief, had not followed
Colonel Johnson to Canada. As for the other Na-
tions, four of them, in the following spring, sent dele-
gates to Philadelphia for an interview with Congress.
In an address to the President they said they hoped
a state of friendship might " continue as long as the
sun shall shine, and the waters run." They gave
to John Hancock, President of Congress, the name
of Karanduaan, meaning the Great Tree, a name
which they afterward always knew him by.
Colonel Guy Johnson was a strict and devoted
Tory. Education and early associations had helped
to make him a partisan of England. Never lack-
ing in zeal for the King's cause, he was now inspired
to new industry by direct instructions from London.
On July 24, 1775, the Earl of Dartmouth informed
him that it was the King's pleasure " that you lose
no time in taking such steps as may induce them
(the Six Nations) to take up the hatchet against his
Majesty's rebellious subjects in America, and to en-
gage them in his Majesty's service upon such plan
as shall be suggested to you by Gen. Gage, to
whom this letter is sent, accompanied with a large
assortment of goods for presents to them upon this
important occasion." It was " a service of very
great importance," and he was not to fail " to exert
every effort that may tend to accomplish it," or to
use " the utmost diligence and activity."
In August, 1775, the patriots under General Philip
Schuyler, hoping to counteract Colonel Johnson's
influence with the Indians, convened a preliminary
"5*
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
council at German Flatts, which met later in Albany.
Colonel Barlow says about five hundred Indians
reached Albany. He found them " very likely, spry,
lusty fellows, drest very nice for Indians. The
larger part of them had on ruffeled shirts, Indian
stockings and shoes, and blankets richly trimmed
with silver and wampum." On the day of the coun-
cil they made " a very beautiful show, being the like-
liest, brightest Indians I ever saw." Presents to the
amount of 150 pounds worth of goods were made,
and while the council was not wholly representative,
the Indians solemnly agreed not to take up arms for
either side. Of the Senecas, Mary Jemison says
that for a year after the council " we were enjoying
ourselves in the employments of peaceful times,"ob-
viously a continuation of those idyllic times she has
described in another part of her book, when " for
twelve or fifteen years the use of the implements of
war was not known, nor the war whoop heard, save
on days of festivity " — times when, as she declared,
there was peace, " if peace ever dwelt with men."
There is no doubt that the Indians who were
present acted in good faith in their professed friend-
ship. When finally won over to the British in the
summer of 1777, the entreaties made to them suc-
ceeded for two reasons. One was a desire to be re-
venged for their heavy losses at the battle of Oris-
kany ; the other, British appeals to their avarice.
The colonists had some hope of retaining the
friendship of Sir John Johnson, Sir William's son
and heir. It was believed that self-interest alone
might make him cast his lot with them. But in the
autumn of 1775, when approached on the subject,
he replied, that " sooner than lift his hand against
his King, or sign any association, he would suffer
152
CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS
his head to be cut off." Sir John's Toryism was
sincere. He had been knighted by George III.,
as a special compliment to his father. Nothing
remained to cement his attachment to the royal
cause. Indeed, Sir John bore the financial test.
Stone could not doubt that he was a Loyalist from
principle, " else he would scarcely have hazarded as
he did, and ultimately lost, domains larger and fairer
than probably ever belonged to a single proprietor
in America, William Penn alone excepted." Sir
John remained in the Mohawk Valley after Colonel
Johnson's departure, but finally was arrested, and
then released on parole. In May, 1776, he took
alarm at the outlook, and fled precipitately, leaving
behind him the family Bible, which contained the
evidence that, unlike other children of Sir William,
he was legitimate. Four months before his flight
he had proposed to Governor Tryon and Tryon
to Lord George Germaine that he " muster five
hundred Indians to support the cause of govern-
ment and that these with a body of regulars might
retake the forts."
The immediate cause of Sir John's flight was the
arrival of Colonel Dayton at Johnstown with a part
of his regiment, under orders to arrest him. With
a large number of his followers, Sir John fled north-
ward through the unbroken forest to the Sacondaga,
and thence followed the upper waters of the Hudson,
avoiding Lake Champlain, since he did not know
in whose possession it then was — a journey lasting
nineteen days, in which the party encountered severe
suffering from long marches over difficult ground
and from want of food. Sir John was soon made a
colonel in the British army, and organized a force
called the Royal Greens, composed of Loyalists who
*S3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
had fled from the New York frontier, mainly former
tenants and dependents of his estate.
The course taken by the red men who followed
Colonel Johnson to Canada is not difficult to under-
stand. The Mohawks in particular, and the other
Indians, except for a short period, had been allies of
the English for a century. To them the complaints
of the colonists about taxation without representa-
tion, and the throwing of tea into Boston Harbor,
were quite beyond understanding. The men of
Boston resisting the soldiers of General Gage were
like the French of Canada who had stormed English
forts on the northern frontier; they were at war
with the King of England, their friend who " lived
over the great lake." Even the Oneidas, the most of
whom adhered to the patriots, said they could not
understand the war. Sending their love to Gov-
ernor Trumbull, of Connecticut, they described the
quarrel as " unnatural." " You are two brothers,"
they said, "of one blood. We Indians cannot find,
nor recollect in the traditions of our ancestors, the
like case or similar instance." *
The attitude which the Oneidas maintained
through the war, is clearly traceable to the influence
of the New England missionaries, and notably to
Kirkland. Among the Indians who had been edu-
* Of these friendly Oneidas, the most interesting and celebrated was
Skenando, one of the accomplished warriors of that nation, who for
long years after the Revolution continued to be known as " the white
man's friend." He survived until 1816, when his age was reputed to
be one hundred and ten years. Mr. Kirkland, the missionary, had
converted him before the Revolution, and he remained a Christian ever
afterward. Not long before his death he said to a friend who had called
upon him : "I am an aged hemlock. The winds of one hundred win-
ters have whistled through my branches. I am dead at the top. The
generation to which I belonged have run away and left me. Why I live
the Great Good Spirit only knows. Pray to my Jesus that I may have
patience to wait for my appointed time to die." Skenando's grave is
at Clinton, Oneida County, alongside that of Kirkland.
154
CAUSES THAT LED TO THE WARS
cated at Lebanon for missionary work was Joseph
Johnson. In 1775 he received from the Provincial
Congress a message directed to the Oneidas, and
about the same time the General Assembly of New
Hampshire instructed him " to use his utmost en-
deavors to brighten the chain of friendship which
has for many years subsisted between us and them."
With a letter from Dr. Wheelock he went to Cam-
bridge in February, 1776, to see Washington, who
wrote him a letter that he could show to the Six
Nations :
You have seen a part of our strength, and can inform
our brothers that we can withstand all the force which those
who want to rob us of our lands and our homes can send
against us. You can tell our friends that they may always
look upon me, whom the whole United Colonies have
chosen to be their Chief Warrior, as their brother.
Washington further said — and this is important
in the light of the steps taken by the British Cabi-
net to induce the Indians to fight with them —
Tell them that we don't want them to take up the
hatchet for us, except they choose it ; we only desire that
they will not fight against us ; we want that the chain of
friendship should always remain bright between our friends
of the nations and us.
Samson Occum, the Indian who had now risen
to great repute as a teacher and preacher for his
people, also gave Johnson a letter, in which he said :
The former kings of England used to let the people of
this country have their freedom and liberty ; but the pres-
ent king of England wants to make them slaves to himself,
and the people of this country don't want to be slaves, and
so they are come over to kill them, and the people here are
l S5
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
obliged to defend themselves. Use all your influence with
your brethren not to intermeddle in these quarrels among
the white people.
In spite of these appeals it is not difficult to un-
derstand the confusion of mind which the conflict
gave to the Indians. These unlettered men could
see plainly that even the province of New York was
not bound as a unit to the cause. Here dwelt many
friends of the King, eminent and honored citizens
of the province, who steadfastly adhered to the royal
cause. Too much should not have been expected
of the Indians. Their wisest course unquestionably
would have been to remain neutral, but this to an
Indian was almost impossible. First, of all things,
he loved war. It was his trade, and he excelled in
it. It was his accomplishment and delight, the
fountain, indeed, of all things that to him seemed
glorious and honorable. When, finally, in 1777, the
main body cast their lot with the King, it is to be
said to their credit that they were keeping the an-
cient "covenant chain." With the close of the con-
flict, when nothing but ruin and despair remained,
they might have declared with a pride quite as just
as the pride of Francis I. after Pavia: "All is lost
save honor."
.56
II
Why Brant Came to
the
Susquehanna
IN the warfare that soon desolated the Susque-
hanna Valley, a leading part was taken by Jo-
seph Brant. The story of his life presents one
of the most attractive narratives in the annals of the
Iroquois. Stone's stately monument to his mem-
ory had been fairly earned. Brant was a man of
real capacity for leadership, and, by nature, was mas-
terful. He had initiative in enterprise, great per-
sonal charm, and for success in civilized life was well
endowed. He was now to enter a region which he
had often visited from boyhood, and he was still a
young man.
Brant, whose Indian name was Thayendanegea,
was born about 1742, on the Ohio River, to which
his parents had gone from the Mohawk Valley, his
father and mother being full-blooded Mohawks.
On becoming a widow, his mother had returned to
New York with Joseph and his sister Mary, com
monly called Mollie, following the Susquehanna
route from the head-waters of the Ohio. She set-
tled at Canajoharie, where she married an Indian
named Carrihogo. Stone believes that Nickus
Brant, a Canajoharie chief of character and cele-
brity, was the father of Joseph.*
* The Indian name of Brant's father, as given by Stone, was Teho-
waghwengaraghkwin, a full-blooded Mohawk of the Wolf Tribe. Brant
was " of the noblest descent among his nation."
r 57
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
The Clinton papers contain many references to
Indians who bore the name of Brant. On a deed
dated in 1760 is found the name Nicolas Brant,
who was described as " of the Beaver." At an
Indian council in 1765 held at Canajoharie, it was
recorded that an Indian called " Old Brant " had
" flung a belt to let them know that it was their de-
sire to their young men not to stir or move until
such time as they should consent." An Indian
writing from New York in 1764 to Sir William
Johnson, sent his regards to Rac-Soutagh, who, in
a parenthesis, was described as " Brant." A pa-
per dated in 1755 nas sig ne d to it the name of
Brant. Sir William Johnson's statement of ex-
pense in 1760, sent to the British Crown, has
among its items : " To Old Brant, chief of Canajo-
harie, in lieu of clothing for his services, 6 pounds,"
and again, " to Brant of Canajoharie to buy pro-
visions, 6 pounds." Another and later item in the
same year is this : " To Brant's son two days after
his father's death, 12 shillings."
In the veins of Joseph Brant ran the blood of
Indian chiefs of high distinction in the annals of
the Iroquois. Of his grandfather, a portrait is re-
produced in this volume from a mezzotint of the
period — Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow, " King of the
Mohawks, alias King Brant" — who was one of the
five kings whom Colonel Peter Schuyler, in 17 10,
took to England. These men of the forest, as already
stated, became in London the lions of social and
public life, much as Joseph Brant himself was twice
to become two generations afterward. Of Brant's
visit an account was given in the London Magazine
for July, 1776. Stone infers that it was written by
Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, Brant
158
Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow, King of the
Mohawks (1710), alias King Brant, Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row, Emperor of
Joseph's grandfather. the Six Nations (1710).
E Tow O Koa.m, King of the River Indians,
or Mohigans (1710).
Joseph Brant in 1S0
His age, sixty- three.
FOUR EMINENT NEW YORK INDIANS
WHY BRANT CAME
having become intimate with him. The visit in-
evitably recalled the one made by the five Indian
kings, of which Steele wrote an account for the
Taller and Addison one for the Spectator. As the
Queen's Court was then in mourning, the Indians
followed the English custom of wearing black under-
clothes, over which, instead of a blanket, they had a
mantle of scarlet cloth edged with gold, a present
from the Queen.
Brant's sister, Mollie, according to Indian custom,
had become the wife of Sir William Johnson. She
bore the familiar title of " the Indian Lady Johnson,"
and lived with him in a state of felicity down to his
death in 1774. Stone gives as follows the tradition
of the Mohawk Valley as to the " rather wild and
romantic " manner in which the acquaintance had
begun :
She was a very spritely and very beautiful Indian girl of
about sixteen when he first saw her. It was at a regimen-
tal military muster where Mollie was one of the multitude
of spectators. One of the field officers coming near her on
a prancing steed, by way of banter she asked permission to
mount behind him. Not supposing she could perform the
exploit, he said she might. At the word, she leaped upon
the crupper with the agility of a gazelle. The horse sprang
off" at full speed, and clinging to the officer, her blanket fly-
ing, and her dark tresses streaming to the wind, she flew
about the parade-ground swift as an arrow, to the infinite
merriment of the collected multitude. The baronet, who
was a witness of the spectacle, admiring the spirit of the
young squaw, and becoming enamoured of her person, took
her home as his wife.
It was under Sir William's influence that Brant as
a boy went to Dr. Wheelock's school. He was a
student there from August, 1761, until July, 1763.
T 59
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Fifteen other Mohawk boys, and ten or more boys
from other Indian tribes, also attended this school.
One of them was William Johnson, a half-breed son
of Sir William, and another was Moses, who after-
ward conducted the Indian school at the foot of Ot-
sego Lake. Dr. Wheelock wrote to Johnson that
Brant was " indeed an excellent youth," and he had
" much endeared himself to his teacher."
On returning to the Mohawk Valley, in 1763,
Brant was employed by Sir William as an interpre-
ter, and Sir William's accounts with the Crown show
that for some years he was in receipt of ^83 per
annum, with other payments for extra services. He
appears to have become a leader among the Indians
of the valley at a very early age. In the autumn
of his return from Lebanon, when a line of patent
was being run, the Indians were dissatisfied, and the
Clinton manuscripts contain the following account
of Brant's participation in the dispute : " A few Ind-
ians, joined by Joseph Brant and some other young
ones, ran and prevented their proceeding, and I ex-
pected nothing but that chain and compass both
would go to wreck. However, the storm blew over,
not without great abuse."
It was while serving as interpreter to Sir William
that Brant went down the Susquehanna Valley as
guide to Richard Smith, which would seem to indi-
cate that Johnson had placed Brant at Smith's dis-
posal. At Canajoharie, Brant owned a farm with a
frame dwelling for his home. Its cellar-walls were
standing as late as 1878 and showed the remains
of a fireplace. In size the structure was about 14
feet by 16. In 1772 his wife died and he removed
to Fort Hunter, where he assisted Mr. Stuart, the
missionary, in making translations into Mohawk of
160
WHY BRANT CAME
the Catechism and Prayer-book, and became a com-
municant of Mr. Stuart's church. A year or so
later he desired Mr. Stuart to marry him to the half-
sister of his deceased wife, but Mr. Stuart refused to
do so. Brant then found a German minister to per-
form the ceremony.
Brant's history from this time until his arrival on
the Susquehanna in November, 1776, shows that the
conduct of the Mohawks in the early years of the
war had for moving cause, not so much a desire to
plunder settlements and murder pioneers as to secure
redress for land grievances. Since the conclusion
of the Fort Stanwix treaty, there had been chronic
trouble over lands around the Mohawk villages.
Sir William Johnson had earnestly desired to mend
these matters, but he died without succeeding.
Johnson's correspondence shows with what pains
he had espoused the Mohawk cause. In October,
1769, he wrote to the acting governor, Cadwallader
Colden, that Sir Henry Moore, the governor who
had just died in office, promised to " take some
measures for effectually securing to the Mohawks
and Canajoharies the lands in and about their vil-
lages." Johnson was persuaded that Colden would
do " whatever was best for that end " and enclosed
the surveys which he had had made by direction of
Moore. In a later letter he said the work " should
certainly be done in the way that is most likely to
be effectual, as well as satisfactory " to the Indians,
and he urged " the strongest security against any
future attempts to deprive them " of their lands.
Matters were still drifting when, in July, 1774, at
a council held in Johnstown, and attended by about
six hundred Indians, the chief of the Canajoharies
made complaint against " that old rogue, the dis-
161
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
turber of our village, George Klock," and referred to
" the many artifices he has made use of, to cheat us
of our lands, and to create dissensions among our-
selves." Johnson replied that he was " authorized to
tell them that Klock's conduct was disagreeable to
the King." When this council was about to dis-
perse, Johnson was suddenly seized with illness, and
early in the evening of the same day he died. Af-
ter the funeral, which was attended by nearly two
thousand persons, Gouldsborough Banyar being one
of the pall-bearers, Johnson's successor, Colonel Guy
Johnson, his son-in-law, gave the Indians assurances
that their complaints " should be laid before gov-
ernment."
Whatever Colonel Johnson may have done, it is
clear that no results had been reached in November,
1775, when Brant and other Indian chiefs, with Col-
onel Johnson and Captain Tice, sailed for England.
They crossed in the same ship on which Ethan Allen
and other prisoners taken at the Battle of the Cedars
were conveyed to England. Two speeches on the
subject of lands were made in London by Brant before
Lord George Germaine, the Colonial Secretary, who
was afterward to have charge of the conduct of the
war in America. The first, made March 17, 1776,
contains the following words :
We have crossed the great lake, and come to this king-
dom with our Superintendent, Col. Johnson, from our
Confederacy, the Six Nations and their allies, that we might
see our Father, the Great King, and join in informing him,
his councillors, and wise men, of the good intentions of the
Indians, our brethren, and of their attachment to his Majesty
and his government.
Brother. The Mohawks, our particular nation, have on
all occasions shown their zeal and loyalty to the Great
162
WHY BRANT CAME
King, yet they have been very badly treated by his people
in that country, the City of Albany laying an unjust claim
to the lands on which our Lower Castle is built, as one
Klock and others do to those of Canajoharie, our Upper
Castle. . . . We also feel for the distress in which
our brethren on the Susquehanna are likely to be involved
by a mistake made in the Boundary we settled in 1768.
And also concerning religion, and the want of ministers of
the Church of England. We have only, therefore, to re-
quest that his Majesty will attend to this matter; it troubles
our nation and they cannot sleep easy in their beds. In-
deed it is very hard when we have let the King's subjects
have so much of our lands for so little value, they should
want to cheat us in this manner of the small spots we have
left for our women and children to live on. We are tired
out in making complaints and getting no redress.
The second speech was delivered on May 7th,
and in a report of it "wrote down as the same
was dictated by the before named chief," occur the
following passages :
Brother. When we delivered our speech, you answered
in few words, that you would take care and have the griev-
ances of the Six Nations, on account of their lands, particu-
larly those of the Mohawks and Oughquagas, removed,
and all those matters settled to our satisfaction, whenever
the troubles in America were ended, and that you hoped
the Six Nations would continue to behave with that attach-
ment to the King they had always manifested ; in which
case they might be sure of his Majesty's favor and protec-
tion.
We are not afraid, brother, or have we the least doubt,
but our brethren, the Six Nations, will continue firm to
their engagements with the King, their father.
Brother. As we expect soon to depart for our own
country, having been long here, we request you, and the
great men who take charge of the affairs of government, not
,63
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to listen to every story that may be told about Indians, but to
give ear only to such things as come from our chiefs and
wise men in council.
In the second of these speeches it is plain that
Germaine, through his promise to redress these griev-
ances after the war, and his promises of the King's
favor and protection, made sure of Brant's adhesion
to the English cause. To support that cause was
now not an ancient privilege, but a newly awakened
patriotic sentiment, founded in self-interest. Proba-
bly on Germaine, more than on any other man, must
responsibility rest, for Brant's destructive zeal in the
border warfare. Germaine's record was already
bad. At the battle of Minden, on the Continent,
he had won unhappy eminence. He had the rank
of lieutenant-colonel and was cashiered for coward-
ice. Americans have little cause to hold his name
in anything but opprobrious remembrance. The
most vigorous measures against the colonists had
his support, including not only the enlistment of
the Six Nations, but the hiring of the Hessians,
and the winning over of Arnold to treason. Tow-
ard him was pointed the finger of the Earl of
Chatham in that memorable speech on the Ameri-
can war :
But, my lords, who is the man, that, in addition to the
disgrace and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize
and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping
knife of the savage ? to call into civilized alliance the wild
and inhuman inhabitants of the woods ? to delegate to the
merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and towage
the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren ? My
lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punish-
ment.
164
WHY BRANT CAME
During his London visit, Brant had an eminent
social success. Among those whom he met were
James Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson,
and Romney, the artist, to whom he sat for a por-
trait ordered by the Earl of Warwick.* A drawing
of Brant was made at this time for Boswell, which
shows him attired as an Indian chief. It was en-
graved for the London Magazine and published with
an account of Brant's visit which has been attributed
to Boswell.
Everything possible was done in England to please
Brant, and the Indians who went with him. Colo-
nel Johnson's account of the expenses connected
with the visit, as afterward sent to the English
Government^ contains several interesting items.
The board-bill for a part of the visit, which extended
over six months, amounted to j£20j. Travelling
expenses to Windsor and other places were £82.
There was an apothecary's bill of £9, a jeweller's
bill of ^4, pistols that cost £14., and clothing cost-
ing £1$. When the Indians sailed for home,
" articles laid in for their accommodation on board,
while returning to New York," cost j[q.j iis, and
" other supplies on ship," £11 10s.
Returning in May, 1776, starting twelve days
after Sir William Howe sailed away to take com-
mand in America, Brant reached Staten Island in
July, and joined the British forces under General
Tryon. He was stationed for a time in Flatbush,
where, as the story is told, he one day tasted a crab-
apple, puckered up his mouth, and exclaimed : " It
is as bitter as a Presbyterian." This prejudice was
* A reproduction of this portrait appears as the frontispiece of this
volume.
t A copy exists among the "Johnson Manuscripts" in the State
Library.
.65
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
an obvious outgrowth, not only of his Church of
England associations, but of his dislike of the Bos-
ton " rebels," who, in the main, were of Calvin's
faith. In November of this year he made his way
to the first scene of his potent activities in the war
— the upper Susquehanna Valley. Brant's manner
of dress and his personal appearance at this period
have been described by Captain Snyder :
He was a likely fellow, of a fierce aspect — tall and rather
spare — well spoken, and apparently about thirty years of
age. He wore moccasins, elegantly trimmed with beads,
leggings and breech-cloth of superfine blue, short green coat,
with two silver epaulets, and a small laced round hat. By
his side hung an elegant silver mounted cutlass, and his
blanket of blue cloth, purposely dropped in the chair on
which he sat, to display his epaulets, was gorgeously deco-
rated with a border of red.
Some of the Six Nations had already arrived at
Oghwaga. Late in the winter of 1775 and 1776,
while Brant was in London, many of the Mohawks
returned by way of Fort Niagara * and took up
head-quarters at Oghwaga. Thus they came to lands
which were their own. In no sense were they in-
vaders. They came by a route that was not the
most direct to the frontier settlements, for the key to
the Mohawk Valley was Fort Stanwix, but this was
in the hands of the Americans. As long as the war
continued, the Susquehanna route was frequently
employed.
By the summer of 1776 a considerable body of Mo-
hawks had reached Oghwaga, and citizens of Cherry
Valley, in a petition to the Provincial Congress, de-
* Fort Niagara lay at the mouth of the river Niagara, on a point of
land jutting out into Lake Ontario. It was already an old fort.
166
WHY BRANT CAME
clared, on information received " from missionaries
and Indian friends," that the settlers were " in im-
minent danger of being cut off by the savages."
Some thirty of the able-bodied men of Cherry Val-
ley had already joined the patriot army, and Captain
John Wisner had enlisted twenty men elsewhere in
the Susquehanna Valley. Thus the inhabitants were
left " in a defenceless condition." Immediate aid
was asked for, " as the inhabitants of the Old Eng-
land District and Unadilla are daily flying into our
settlement, so that we shall immediately in all ap-
pearances have an open, defenceless, and unguarded
frontier." Before the summer was ended, Captain
Winn was sent to Cherry Valley with a company of
rangers.
167
Ill
Brant's Arrival
in
Unadilla
1777
IN November Colonel Guy Johnson, who had
returned from London with further instructions
in line with those the Earl of Dartmouth had
given him the year before, sent word to Germaine
that, with the approbation of General Howe, he had
" lately dispatched in disguise one of my officers
with Joseph, the Indian chief, who desired the ser-
vice, to get across the country to the Six Na-
tions." He had hopes of their getting "through
undiscovered, and of their preparing the Indians to
co-operate with our military movements."
News that Brant had reached Oghwaga went on to
Cherry Valley, whence it was forwarded to the Pro-
vincial authorities at Kingston, with further word
that " 'tis said he is to return to Lord Howe." The
alarm spread rapidly throughout the frontier settle-
ments. No doubts could longer be entertained as
to the sympathies of the Indians, for they had raised
the British flag at Oghwaga. At Cherry Valley the
Campbell house, being the largest in the settlement
and situated on elevated ground, was now fortified.
An embankment of earth and logs was constructed
enclosing the dwelling-house, two block-houses, and
two large barns. The doors of the house were made
168
BRANT'S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA
double, and strong shutters were put up at the win-
dows. Complaints came in from Oghwaga dur-
ing the winter that the Indians had not been paid
for certain lands sold by them to George Croghan
for the benefit of " the late General Brideport." *
They had accepted Croghan's note, and " the said
lands had since been patented to others under the
great seal of the State of New York." They de-
sired that justice might be done and " their minds
quieted." These complaints referred to the griev-
ances of the Oghwaga Indians, mentioned by Brant
in London.
Other reports indicated a more hostile spirit, and
a committee of the Provincial Congress in Febru-
ary, 1777, reported that it was " necessary to pro-
vide measures for apprehending Joseph Brant." In
fact, a resolution was offered that " it will be of
great service to the American cause to apprehend
Joseph Brant ; wherefore no cost should be spared
for that purpose, and that it will be of use to recom-
mend to General Schuyler, Mr. John Harper, of
the County of Tryon, as the proper person to be
employed in that service, the said John Harper be-
ing, as this committee are well informed, very inti-
mately acquainted at the Oghwaga Castle, and warm-
ly attached to the American cause." The report
was recommitted two days later and another made
* So printed in the journals of the Provincial Congress, but an obvious
error for Major-General John Bradstreet, who just before his death
had obtained an extensive tract from the Oghwaga Indians— some 300,-
000 acres — lying in part in the western portion of the present town of
Sidney. General Bradstreet had won his rank in the French and Ind-
ian War. Many years after the Revolution some of these lands were
claimed by a granddaughter of General Bradstreet, who came over
from Ireland to prosecute her suit. Although she did not succeed,
many settlers were ruined in their estates through the expenses caused
by litigation in which they were defendants. — Brant MSS. in the Draper
Collection.
169
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
in its place. Harper and Brant having been school-
mates at Lebanon, it was thought Harper might suc-
ceed in negotiations, and accordingly he departed
with a friendly letter. The two men had then been
ten years out of Dr. Wheelock's school. Both had
seen something of the world, and nothing had oc-
curred to disturb the friendly relations they had en-
joyed at Lebanon.
An account of this visit was written by Colonel
Harper himself. He set out on February 17, 1777,
with one Indian and one white man, and went " in
order to discover the motions of the enemy." Gould
says Harper was accompanied as far as the Johnston
Settlement by a regiment of militia, which he left at
the settlement to await further orders while he pro-
ceeded to Oghwaga. Harper's statement that he
was accompanied only by one Indian and one white
man, referred only to that part of the journey made
on Indian territory. Harper says he gave private
orders to the captains of the several companies un-
der his command, " to be in readiness at the short-
est notice by me in order to oppose the aforesaid
Brant and his party." On arrival at Oghwaga he
" found the reports well grounded," and wrote to
the Provincial Congress that " in order to present
your letter in the most friendly manner, we killed
an ox for to make a friendly entertainment, which
had the desired effect." The letter which Harper
bore was in part as follows :
It gives us real concern that George Croghan has abused
your confidence and defrauded you of money due you on
his note of hand. He has treated many other subjects of
this State in the same manner: first running greatly in debt,
and then privately removing out of its jurisdiction. The
great council will, however, when the important business
170
BRANT'S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA
which at present engages all its attention shall admit, en-
deavor to secure your debt.
Brothers, the great council never will suffer you to be
defrauded of your lands; but will severely punish all who
attempt it, and you may safely depend on our protection.
If a settlement should be attempted, the great council will
order the intruders to be removed.
Brothers, we are not unmindful of your wants, or your
former request for ammunition. We shall always be pleased
when it is in our power to assist you ; and we now send
you ioo weight of powder, which you will accept as a proof
of our sincerity and regard.
Brothers, rely on our justice, protection, and friendship.
Farewell.
Harper understood the Indian language, and be-
fore delivering this letter made an address, using the
Indian gestures. For the entertainment he painted
his face, joined in the ceremonies, and wore Indian
dress. At the close of the feasting, a crown made
of a belt and decorated with beads was formally
placed upon his head, signifying that he was entitled
to a voice in the deliberations of the Six Nations —
an honor conferred upon only one other white man
— Sir William Johnson. The Indians said they
were sorry the frontiersmen had been troubled, and
left an impression on Harper's mind that they would
take no part against the patriots in the conflict with
England. The Indians at Oghwaga as yet mainly
sought to secure justice in their land affairs, and it
is to be remembered also that they told Colonel
Harper they had been forbidden by Colonel John
Butler from injuring any of the frontier settlements.
On his return Colonel Harper encountered, near
the mouth of Schenevus Creek,* a party of Indians
* So named after an Indian who lived and hunted on the stream.
I 7 I
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to whom he represented himself as a friend. Gain-
ing their confidence, he obtained an admission from
them that they contemplated the destruction of the
Johnston Settlement. Colonel Harper, who appears
to have been returning alone, hastened to his home,
where he obtained seventeen men and went back to
surprise the Indians while they were asleep at night.
He captured ten men and took them to Albany.
The Rev. Stephen Fenn, for many years a minister
at Harpersfield, who had the account from Harper
himself, has described as follows the capture of these
men :
Daylight was beginning to appear in the east. When
they came to the enemy, they lay in a circle with their
feet towards the fire in a deep sleep ; their arms and all
their implements of death were stacked up, according to the
Indian custom, where they lay themselves for the night ;
these the colonel secured by carrying them ofF a distance
and laying them down ; then each man, taking his rope in
hand, placed himself by his fellow ; the colonel rapped his
man softly and said, " come, it is time for men of business
to be on their way," and then each one sprang upon his
man, and, after a most severe struggle, they secured the
whole number of the enemy.
This capture was made at the mouth of the creek,
near where Colliers now is. One of the Indians
was known as Peter. Harper had traded with him
before the war. Having spent the winter in New
York or Canada, Brant did not reach Oghwaga this
year until a few weeks after Harper returned. He
then found about 700 Indians assembled at the place,
and the number was expected soon to increase, as
in fact it did, after Brant had invaded the Mo-
hawk Valley, and brought down fifty head of cattle.
It is believed that Brant and Colonel Johnson had
172
BRANT'S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA
had a disagreement early in the year, and that Brant's
coming was the result of it. Stone represents that
Brant was now advanced to " his place as the prin-
cipal war chief of the Iroquois Confederacy," but
later investigations have shown that his authority
did not then, or afterward, extend much beyond the
Mohawks, although on certain occasions he had
other Indians under his leadership and he was often
described as "the great captain of the Six Nations."
Brant soon found himself in full command at
Oghwaga, and late in May advanced up the valley,
accompanied by seventy or eighty warriors, and per-
haps by one hundred. At Unadilla, still remained
several families. On hearing of Brant's approach,
one of the Sliters mounted a horse and rode in haste
to Cherry Valley to ask for aid. A sergeant and
forty men returned with him and encamped on
ground adjoining Mr. Sliter's home on the Unadiila
side of the river. On Brant's arrival, on June 2d,
Sliter and his five sons, Cornelius, Nicholas, Con-
rad, Peter, and James, were ploughing. Brant de-
manded provisions. If he could not get them
peaceably he " must take them by force." One of
the Sliters crossed the river, and invited him to the
Sliter house for a conference. Brant declined, and
then extended the same hospitality to the white men,
assuring them they would not be harmed.
Under this assurance, the settlers finally crossed.
They at once found themselves surrounded by Ind-
ians. Mr. Johnston spoke a few words favoring
peace, and urging the red men to take a neutral atti-
tude in the war ; but Brant replied : " I am a man for
war. I have taken my oath with the King, and will
not make a treaty with you." A family tradition is
that Mr. Johnston in the course of this interview as-
173
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
sured Brant, with his fist closed, that he was not
afraid of him. Further efforts for conciliation only
showed that Brant was not to be moved. Food he
must and would have, and the settlers had to yield.
Some eight or ten head of horned cattle, including
one of the steers Sliter had been ploughing with, some
sheep, hogs, and a large quantity of provisions were
turned over to the hungry Indians. When some of
them secretly took away wearing apparel hanging
on clothes-lines, Brant was appealed to for protec-
tion. " Ha ! these Indians," said he, " I cannot con-
trol them."
Brant closed this interview by requiring the set-
tlers to leave the country or declare themselves for
the English cause. One statement is that he gave
them forty-eight hours in which to go away ; another
that he gave them eight days. " So long," said he,
"they shall be safe. If any others want to join us
I will protect them, and they may stay." Carr,
Dingman, and Woodcock are said to have concluded
to remain, but the names Dingman and Woodcock
are found among those who fought on the side of
the patriots. The Johnstons, Mc Masters, and Sli-
ters at once declined to accept Brant's conditions, and
having buried their tools and other articles removed
to Cherry Valley. In July Mr. Johnston went to
Kingston with Colonel Harper and made affidavit
to these occurrences. Three other families at the
settlement are said to have declared for the patriots,
but their names have been lost. Of Carr it is
known that he afterward supplied Brant with pro-
visions, among which probably were products of his
grist-mill.
Brant's stay continued for several days after the
Johnstons and Sliters had gone. He burned some
174
BRANT'S ARRIVAL IN UNADILLA
of the abandoned dwellings, and along the Unadilla
River extended his hostile sway. Gould estimates
the population of the settlement before hostilities
began, at twenty, or one-sixth the entire population
at that time of the lands out of which was to be cre-
ated Delaware County ; but this estimate could not
have included the families on the Unadilla side of
the stream. With the usual allowance of five or six
souls to a family, the total for both sides of the
stream would be at least twice that number.
Brant, being now master of the situation, sent
word to all settlers that if they did not declare for
the King, he would seize them and their property.
A friendly Indian hastened to warn the Ogdens in
Otego, as well as men at the mouth of the Ouleout,
and they fled in haste, some to Middlefield, and
others to Cherry Valley. The father of the Ogdens
on this journey paddled a canoe up the river while
his wife and son David drove the oxen and a cow
on shore.
75
IV
General Herkimer's Conference
with Brant
1777
IN driving out these settlers, Brant had taken
the first hostile step in the Susquehanna Valley
in the border warfare of the Revolution. Else-
where in the country, war had now become a famil-
iar calamity. Since the Cherry Valley meeting, held
just after the Concord fight, events of large import
had occurred. Washington had arrived in Cam-
bridge as Commander-in-chief, and had forced the
British to evacuate Boston. The Declaration of
Independence had been signed. On Long Island
the American army under Putnam had fought in
a losing battle. Harlem Heights and White Plains
had witnessed engagements. Washington had
crossed the Hudson and the Jersey meadows, and
had forced the Hessians to surrender at Trenton.
The battle of Princeton had been fought, and Fred-
eric the Great, old, battle-scarred, and renowned,
declared one of these movements to be the most
brilliant he had ever observed, and sent Washing-
ton a sword.
After the flight of the Susquehanna settlers, sev-
eral Tories proceeded to Unadilla and rendered aid
to Brant. A road was marked through the wilder-
ness straight to Esopus on the Hudson, now King-
ston — an early foreshadowing of the Esopus turn-
pike ending at the river-bridge in Bainbridge — by
. 7 6
HERKIMER'S CONFERENCE
which other Tories from Ulster and Orange coun-
ties were expected to come in and reinforce the Ind-
ians. Brant was reported to have declared that he
would soon be in a position not to fear the ap-
proach of 3,000 men.
The inhabitants of Harpersfield, believing they
stood in danger of an early invasion, addressed a let-
ter to the Council of Safety, declaring that "the late
irruptions and hostilities committed at Unadilla by
Joseph Brant with a party of Indians and Tories
have so alarmed the well-affected inhabitants of this
and the neighboring settlements, who are now the
entire frontier of this State, that, except your hon-
ors doth afford us immediate protection, we shall be
obliged to leave our settlements to save our lives
and families." There was " not a man on the out-
side of us but such as have taken protection of
Brant."
General Nicholas Herkimer, then the military
chief of Tryon County, was as well acquainted with
Brant as Colonel Harper was. His rank was that
of brigadier, and he had been in command of the
militia of the county since September of the previ-
ous year. It was decided that he should go to
Unadilla to confer with the Indians, the decision
being the result of a conference held by General
Schuyler, Colonel Van Schaick, and other officers.
Colonel Van Schaick, with 150 men, went with him
as far as Cherry Valley, but was unable to proceed
farther for want of provisions. General Schuyler
stood ready to follow should a greater force be
needed.*
* In Herkimer's party were the Rev. William Johnston, Colonel
Johnston, his son, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cox, with others whose names
are already familiar in this history, or are afterward to become so. In
the first battalion of militia was Samuel Clyde, a captain, and Henry
J 77
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Herkimer had with him altogether 380 men.
From Canajoharie the little army proceeded south-
ward along Bowman's Creek, and thence from Cherry
Valley to Otsego Lake and the Susquehanna, reach-
ing Unadilla late in June. At a point about four
miles below the present village of Unadilla a halt
was made near the railroad bridge that crosses the
Susquehanna, and a messenger was sent forward to
Oghwaga to inquire if Brant would come up for a
friendly conference. Brant sent back an Indian
who asked sarcastically if all the soldiers with Gen-
eral Herkimer desired to speak with Brant. Her-
kimer, having declared his peaceable intentions, it
was arranged that Brant should advance. Eight
days later the Mohawk chief reached the meeting-
place, with a party of warriors, one statement plac-
ing their numbers at 137 and another at 500.*
At a place distant two miles west from the meet-
ing-place on the Sidney side, Brant formed his own
camp, and went forward to arrange for the interview,
which took place at a point midway between the two
encampments, each leader having with him a body-
guard of fifty men. Herkimer asked to be allowed
to proceed farther down the river, but he was told
Scramling, a second lieutenant. In the third, David McMaster was a
first lieutenant and afterward captain, while James McMaster was a
second lieutenant, Jeremiah Swartz, a first lieutenant, Abraham Hodges,
a captain, and Amos Bennett, an ensign. In the fourth, Hanyost Her-
kimer was a colonel, George F. Hellner, a second lieutenant, and George
Herkimer, a captain. Of the fifth regiment, John Harper was the colonel
with Daniel Ogden, a second lieutenant, and Thomas Cully, an ensign. In
the regiment of Frederick Fischer, Captain David McMaster's company,
served as privates William Hanna and Jeremiah Burch; in Captain Yates's
company, Jonathan Spencer and Orange Spencer; in Colonel Van
"Veghten's" (Vechten's) regiment, Abimeleck Arnold, and in Colonel
Willett's, John, Peter, and Abraham Woodcock.
* Stone says 500, and Brant told Herkimer he had that number. Prob-
ably 137 was the number who came up to the Fort Stanwix line, the
others remaining at Oghwaga.
I78
HERKIMER'S CONFERENCE
he could not go west of the boundary-line. With
Brant, besides his body-guard, were his nephew,
William Johnson, Mollie Brant's son ; an Indian
chief; man named Pool; a Tory, named Captain
Bull, and another person, described as a smart young
fellow with curly hair, half Indian and half negro.
A temporary shed, capable of seating 200 per-
sons, was erected for the interview, all the arms hav-
ing been left by both parties in their respective en-
campments. Herkimer's camp was on the Houck
flat above the site of Sidney village, near the railroad
bridge. The meeting-place was on the Bradley
farm, one-fourth of a mile above the railroad station.
In this locality still exists one of several knolls as-
sociated with Indian history. Relics have been
found there, and apple-trees of great size once grew
upon its summit. The camp of Brant was below
the village, on the elevated plateau now the farm
of Milton C. Johnston, a descendant of the dominie.
A detailed account of the interview exists in an
affidavit made by Colonel Harper, in July, 1777.
He says Herkimer "delivered a speech tending to
peace with the Indians nations," to which Brant re-
plied that he was " thankful the General was so
peaceably disposed, but as the Indians were hungry,
they could not speak until they had eaten." Brant
and his chiefs then retired to the encampment, to
refresh themselves. They returned with " upward
of 130 warriors — to wit, about 136 or 137." Brant
repeated his expression of pleasure over Herkimer's
peaceable intentions, but added that " by their num-
bers, they appeared to be disposed for war," and if
that was the case he " was ready for them." Stone,
on the authority of a statement of facts collected
by L. Ford, says Brant remarked to Herkimer, " all
179
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
these men have come on a friendly visit too. They
all want to see the poor Indian. It is very kind."
Brant stated the grounds of Indian complaint, and
his sincerity cannot be questioned. First, he said the
Mohawks remaining in the Mohawk Valley were
confined to one place, and not allowed to pass with
freedom along the river. He made no specific refer-
ence to the Fort Stanwix treaty, but a clause in the
deed, as already said, had provided that " lands oc-
cupied by the Mohawks around their villages, as well
as by any other nation affected by this cession, may
effectually remain to them and their posterity." The
next item of complaint was that " their minister, Mr.
Stuart, had not liberty to pass and repass as formerly,
so that they could not carry on their worship." *
Brant's next complaint was that forts had been
erected on Indian territory. General Herkimer
asked if the Indians would be content, if these com-
plaints were satisfied, to which Brant replied that
the Indians were in covenant with the King, as their
fathers had been. They "were steady and not
changeable as the wind." After the war, Brant
wrote to Sir Evan Nepeau, the British Under-Sec-
retary of State :
When I joined the English in the beginning of the war it
was purely on account of my forefathers' engagements with
the King. I always looked upon those engagements as
covenants between the King and the Indian nations, and
* The Rev. John Stuart or Stewart, was a son of an Irish Presbyte-
rian and a native of Harrisburgh. He was a graduate of the University
of Pennsylvania, had studied for orders in the Church of England and in
1770 had been ordained. He labored for many years among the Mo-
hawks and made translations into their language of the Gospels and the
Catechism. Suspected of inciting the Indians against the patriots, his
house and church had been plundered and he was finally expelled from
the settlements. After the war he went to Canada, where he laid the
foundations of the Episcopal Church in the upper province.
l8o
HERKIMER'S CONFERENCE
as sacred things : therefore I was not to be frightened by
the threats of the rebels at that time."
When the negotiations had reached this point.,
Colonel Cox, one of Herkimer's officers, in an im->
petuous way, remarked that the affair must then be
regarded as settled. Cox and Brant had long been
unfriendly and a strained state of feeling still existed.
Brant became irritated at Cox's remark and sarcas-
tically asked if he were not " the son-in-law of old
George Kloch." Cox replied testily : " Yes, and
what is that to you, you d — d Indian." Thereupon
Brant gave the signal for his men to return to camp,
from which they discharged a volley of musketry.
Brant himself still remained with Herkimer, and
Herkimer wishing to avoid an engagement, again
assured him he was for peace. Brant sent a messen-
ger to his men, ordering them to make no further
demonstration without word from him, and one of
his orators then delivered an oration declaring that
the Indians " were ready to come to action," this
statement being made " in a most threatening post-
ure." " I have five hundred warriors," said Brant,
" at my command and can in an instant destroy you
and your party ; but we are old neighbors, and I will
not." And with fine bravado he said it, considering
that two-thirds of them were probably twenty-five
miles down the river — at Oghwaga. Herkimer again
assured him he had come on a peaceable mission,
and wished to secure such Tories and deserters as re-
mained in the valley. Brant insisted that they must
not be disturbed, as they were subjects of the King.*
* Another account of this interview exists in the affidavit of John
Dusler, who was a private in the militia. It was made in 1833, and is
as follows :
"Gen. Herkimer and Col. Cox, after they had fixed upon a time, met
l8l
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
On June 28, Herkimer returned to Cherry Valley,
and on the following day, Brant, with some spear-
men, put the town of Unadilla in the hands of
Tories. In their possession and his it long re-
mained.
That General Herkimer's peaceful mission would
fail men who understood the grievances of the Ind-
ians might have anticipated. It does not appear
that, aside from a few cattle, he gave the Indians
any presents, whereas the English from early times
had supplied them with clothing, implements, and
food. Stone says Brant " taunted Gen. Herkimer
with the poverty of the Continental government,
which he said was not able to give the Indians a
blanket." Harper's version of this is, that Brant
remarked how General Schuyler at the German
Flatts conference had made bold threats to the Ind-
ians and " at the same time was not able to afford
them the linen to put a shirt on their backs."
The statement has been made that Herkimer ar-
Brant and they had a talk. Neither party was allowed to bring guns to
the place where they were talking. There was a place covered for them
to talk under, and a place for a table. There were men stationed out to
keep guard, and the Indians had seats made of boards under the trees,
that they sat on, but without arms."
" General Herkimer and Captain Brant talked awhile. Then Colonel
Cox spoke and said ' damn him, ' and ' let him go. ' Brant mentioned
this in Indian to his men, who were close by. They all at once sprang
up and shouted, putting their hands on their mouths as they hallooed,
and then ran off, and directly they heard them firing off their pieces,
General Herkimer took Brant by the arm and told him not to mind what
Cox said : that they were old neighbors, and ought not to be spilling
each others' blood, etc. He talked very nice to him. Brant was mode-
rate too.
" The day before this public meeting, Gen. Herkimer and Brant had
talked a good deal together about the business. Understood there was
a treaty made, and that Brant would come back and live on the river
again. They returned the same way as far as Otego : then Col.
Billinger's regiment went home by a place called the Butternuts. They
were gone in all the time about 17 or 18 days." — Brant MSS. in the
Draper Collection.
182
HERKIMER'S CONFERENCE
ranged to have Brant shot during this meeting,
which, if true, would have put a lasting stain
upon his name ; but Joseph Wagner, one of the
men whom he is said to have selected for the pur-
pose, told Lossing that the arrangement was one
of precaution only. On the evening of the first day
of the conference, after the outbreak due to Colonel
Cox's remark, Herkimer decided that, in case Brant
showed an unmistakable purpose to fight the next
day, Wagner, and Abraham and George Herkimer
should seize or kill him. Herkimer's reasons for
avoiding battle are not definitely known. Probably
his instructions restrained him, for he was a brave
man, as he was soon to show on a famous field.
The conference closed in an ominous manner, as
described by Campbell :
The sun shone forth without a cloud to obscure it, and
as the rays gilded the tops of the forest trees, or were re-
flected from the waters of the Susquehanna, they imparted
a rich tint to the wild scenery with which they were sur-
rounded. The echo of the war whoop had scarcely died
away, before the heavens became black and a violent storm
of hail and rain obliged each party to withdraw and seek
the nearest shelter.
After the interview, Brant remained in the neigh-
borhood of Unadilla, fortifying the place and com-
mitting depredations on settlers who were still there.
The ten or a dozen cattle which Herkimer gave
them, Wagner says the Indians "slaughtered incon-
tinently." But they were soon in want of food, and
Brant sought assistance from Percifer Carr of Edmes-
ton, to whom he wrote the following letter on July 6 :
I understand that you are a friend to government, with
sum of the settlers at the Butternuts, which is the reason
i8 3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
of my applying to you and those people for sum provisions
and shall be glad you would send me what you can spare,
no matter what sort, for which you shall be paid, you keep-
ing an account of the whole. From your Friend and
Humble Serv'nt,
Joseph Brant.
In this Unadilla conference Brant acted only for
the Mohawks. The Iroquois had failed to adopt a
resolution favoring united action friendly to the
English. The Oneida chiefs firmly resisted a war
measure and the organic law of the League required
unanimous consent. It was agreed, however, that
each nation should act in its own way. The Senecas
remained inactive until drawn into the conflict by
the battle of Oriskany, two months after the Una-
dilla conference. Nor do the Cayugas and Onon-
dagas appear to have taken any steps favorable to
the English until after Oriskany, when the whole
New York frontier was hopelessly plunged into that
long series of border conflicts by which it was at last
made desolate.
184
V
The Battle of Oriskany
1777
THE Revolution had now reached a critical
period. In the previous summer, the Brit-
ish, evacuating Boston, had arrived in the
harbor of New York, with a large fleet of war-
ships and 30,000 men, prepared to enter upon a
campaign for the capture of the Hudson Valley.
Early in 1777, a vast enterprise was formed. The
main army of the British under Burgoyne was to
descend from Montreal by way of Lake Champlain.
Another force was to ascend the Hudson valley from
New York, and a third, composed of Indians, Tories,
and regulars, was to come on from Montreal under
Barry St. Leger, by way of Oswego, to the Mohawk
Valley, thence making its way east and joining Bur-
goyne. It was confidently believed that the capture
of the Hudson Valley, which formed the key to the
main conflict in America, could thus be effected. It
is St. Leger's part in that memorable campaign
which directly concerns this history.
Early in the summer, 400 regular British troops,
including Hessians, had assembled at Oswego,
under Sir John Johnson and Colonel Daniel Claus,
the husband of Sir John's sister. Meanwhile, 600
Tories and Canadians, who had come together on
Carleton Island, near the head of the St. Lawrence,
proceeded to Oswego. Brant, after writing his
letter to Percifer Carr, had started for Oswego, ac-
18J
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
companied by about 300 Indians, his route being
along the Unadilla River.
At Oswego had gathered a few hundred other
Indians, who, at a council some weeks before, had
been informed that the King of England was a man
of great power, that they should never want for
food and clothing, if they adhered to him, and that
rum should be " as plentiful as water in Lake On-
tario." Each warrior received a suit of clothes, a
brass kettle,* a gun, a tomahawk, powder and money,
and a bounty was offered on every white man's
scalp they might take. Writing of the Senecas,
Mary Jemison says, thus richly clad and equipped,
they became " full of the fire of war, and anxious to
encounter their enemies."
Oswego was already an ancient rendezvous.
Here Frontenac had landed in 1792, when he spread
destruction among the Onondagas and extinguished
the central Council Fire of the Six Nations. From
times still earlier it had had importance. Here, in
16 1 6, Champlain had disembarked to make his
campaign against the Indians in Central New York,
and here, in the seventeenth century, the Jesuit
priests had arrived from the north, to begin their
work of planting Christianity among the heathen.
Indeed it is here that the Iroquois themselves are
believed to have first settled, when they came to
central New York.
In 1721, Governor Burnet planted a small trad-
ing settlement at Oswego, as an outpost against the
French. He met with opposition, but in 1726 was
able to build a fort. Twenty years afterward Sir
William Johnson employed Oswego as one of his
* Some of these kettles were still in use among the Indians fifty years
afterward.
186
O .22
° £
o I
O M
THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY
trading posts, Oghwaga being perhaps his next
most important centre. In 1755, General Shirley
enlarged and strengthened the fort, but a year later
it was captured by Montcalm, dismantled and laid in
ruins. Here, in 1759, the fortress having been re-
stored, were gathered the English forces which went
westward, and gained possession of Fort Niagara.
During the Revolution Fort Oswego underwent
considerable repairs. It never became a winter head-
quarters, however, being found more serviceable as
a rendezvous. Niagara was the place in which the
Indians and many Tories spent the winter, and
Niagara was the usual destination of the prisoners
whom they captured on the frontier. At Oswego,
until the last scene of the war, Indians, Tories, and
regular troops were now to assemble for descents
upon a defenceless frontier, easily reached by follow-
ing the small lakes and rivers which there discharge
their waters into Lake Ontario.
About 700 Indians were added to the British
force in 1777, St. Leger taking command of the
whole body, except the Indians whom Brant com-
manded, the army now numbering 1,700 men, and
St. Leger effecting its final organization at Oswego.
The Indians were assured that if they would pro-
ceed with St. Leger to Fort Schuyler,* they might
sit down and smoke their pipes while they saw the
British " whip the Rebels." Mary Jemison says the
* Formerly Fort Stanwix, which had been built in 1758, during the
French War, and was named after General Stanwix, a British officer.
General Schuyler in 1776, at the suggestion of Washington, had re-
paired and strengthened it, and it had been renamed Fort Schuyler.
Powder horns which soldiers carved during that summer in the fort
bear this new name. Among the English, however, the fort was still called
after its old name. Much confusion has resulted, and this has been
emphasized by the fact that after the war, the old name of Fort Stanwix
was restored.
187
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Senecas followed St. Leger to a man, but, instead of
smoking pipes and looking on, they " were obliged
to fight for their lives, and in the battle were com-
pletely beaten." This conflict was Oriskany,*
fought on August 6th.
Burgoyne's victorious march down the Cham-
plain Valley and his easy capture of Fort Ticonder-
oga, were already known to St. Leger when, with his
motley band, he set out for Fort Schuyler, by way
of Oneida Lake. He confidently believed that the
fort would capitulate. But it now had a strong garri-
son of 750 men, under Colonel Peter Gansevoort,
with Colonel Marinus Willett second in command.
It had provisions enough for six weeks, with a short
supply of ammunition for cannon, though enough
for the small arms. But it had no flag.
In June of this year, Congress had formally
adopted the Stars and Stripes. Betsy Ross, that
summer in Philadelphia, had made the first speci-
men of the new American banner, but none had yet
reached this fort on the western frontier. A rude
specimen was therefore constructed in the fort, one
tradition being, that the red material came from a
flannel shirt, the white from a cotton shirt, and the
blue from the petticoat of a soldier's wife. Above
the ramparts this flag was hoisted, and it seems to
be the first instance in history in which the Stars
and Stripes were ever raised in the face of an enemy.
St. Leger invested Fort Schuyler on August 3d.
A flag of truce was at once sent in, with a manifesto
offering protection to all who might submit. The
offer having met with a prompt refusal, the siege
was begun on the following day, Indians completely
surrounding the fort while concealed in the adjacent
* The meaning of this word, according to Morgan, is nettles.
188
THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY
woods. A messenger was despatched to Burgoyne,
announcing St. Leger's arrival ; St. Leger being in
complete ignorance of the formidable obstacles that
were obstructing that general's progress. Burgoyne
had found himself with a supply of stores wholly
inadequate, and not more than one-third of his
horses had been able to follow him from Canada.
His advance had been completely blocked. Seek-
ing relief, he sent out the expedition to Bennington
so disastrously overwhelmed on August 16th by
General John Stark.
The people of Tryon County early in the sum-
mer had learned of the coming of St. Leger, through
Thomas Spencer, the Cherry Valley orator, who
brought the news from Canada, after having gone
there to observe the movements of the enemy. On
hearing that St. Leger had reached Oswego, General
Nicholas Herkimer issued a proclamation calling
upon the frontiersmen to organize in defence of their
homes. Men between sixteen and sixty years of
age were urged to enter the service, while those
above sixty were directed to defend the women and
children. Herkimer gathered a force of between
800 and 1,000 men, a part of whom had gone with
him to Unadilla to meet Brant.
German Flatts was now made the place of rendez-
vous for the militia, and so soon as the fort was in-
vested, General Herkimer set out for its relief. He
went into camp on August 5th, about eight miles
east of it. Here, some of the officers grew impatient
at his delay. They urged an immediate advance, and
accused Herkimer of disloyalty and cowardice. He
remonstrated with them, and pointed out the need
for reinforcements, but at last was obliged to yield.
He gave the order to advance, only to find his army
189
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
at the mercy of an ambuscade, with Brant leading
the Indians and Colonel Butler his own Rangers.
This surprise occurred at a ravine, semi-circular in
form, and marshy at the bottom, which crossed the
road Herkimer had to follow. Stone has best de-
scribed the scene of wild slaughter that followed :
Being thrown into irretrievable disorder by the sudden-
ness of the surprise and the destructiveness of the fire,
which was close and brisk from every side, the division
was for a time threatened with annihilation. At every op-
portunity the savages, concealed behind the trunks of trees,
darted forward with knife and tomahawk to insure the de-
struction of those who fell ; and many and fierce were the
conflicts that ensued hand to hand. The veteran Herki-
mer fell, wounded, in the early part of the action — a mus-
ket-ball having passed through and killed his horse, and
shattered his own leg just below the knee. The General
was placed upon his saddle, however, against the trunk of a
tree for his support, and thus continued to order the battle.
Colonel Cox, and Captains Davis and Van Sluyck, were
severally killed near the commencement of the engagement ;
and the slaughter of their broken ranks, from the rifles of
the Tories and the spears and tomahawks of the Indians
was dreadful. But even in this deplorable situation the
wounded General, his men dropping like leaves around
him, and the forest resounding with the horrid yells of the
savages, ringing high and wild over the din of battle, be-
haved with the most perfect composure.
The action had lasted about forty-five minutes in great
disorder, before the Provincials formed themselves into
circles in order to repel the attacks of the enemy, who were
concentrating and closing in upon them from all sides.
From this moment the resistance of the Provincials was
more effective, and the enemy attempted to charge with
the bayonet. The firing ceased for a time, except the
scattering discharges of musketry from the Indians ; and as
the bayonets crossed the contest became a death-struggle,
190
THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY
hand to hand and foot to foot. Never, however, did brave
men stand a charge with more dauntless courage, and the
enemy, for the moment, seemed to recoil — just at the in-
stant when the work of death was arrested by a heavy
shower of rain which suddenly broke upon the combatants
with great fury.
During this suspension of the battle, both parties had time
to look about, and make such new dispositions as they
pleased for attack and defence on renewing the murderous
conflict. In the early part of the battle, the Indians, when-
ever they saw a gun fired by a militia-man from behind a
tree, rushed upon and tomahawked him before he could re-
load. In order to counteract this mode of warfare, two
men were stationed behind a single tree, one only to fire at
a time — the other reserving his fire until the Indians ran
up as before. The fight was presently renewed and by
the new arrangement, and the cool execution done by the
fire of the militia forming the main circle, the Indians were
made to suffer severely ; so much so that they began to give
way, when Major Watts came up with a reinforcement,
consisting of another detachment of Johnson's Greens.
These men were mostly loyalists who had fled from Try-
on County, now returned in arms against their former
neighbors.
As no quarrels are so bitter as those of families, so no
wars are so cruel and passionate as those called civil.
Many of the Provincials and Greens were known to each
other; and as they advanced so near as to afford opportu-
nities of mutual recognition, the contest became, if possible,
more of a death-struggle than before. Mutual resentment
and feeling of hate raged in their bosoms. The Provin-
cials fired upon them as they advanced, and then, springing
like chafed tigers from their covers, attacked them with
their bayonets and the butts of their muskets, or both par-
ties, in closer contact, throttled each other and drew their
knives, stabbing, and sometimes literally dying in one an-
other's embrace.
91
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
The parties once more rushed upon each other with
bayonet and spear, grappling and righting with terrible fury ;
while the shattering of shafts and the clashing of steel,
mingled with every dread sound of war and death, and the
savage yells, more hideous than all, presented a scene which
can be more easily imagined than described.
Such a conflict as this could not be continued long ; and
the Indians, perceiving with what ardor the Provincials
maintained the fight, and finding their own numbers sadly
diminished, now raised the retreating cry of " Oonah ! "
and fled in every direction, under the shouts and hurrahs
of the surviving Provincials and a shower of bullets. Find-
ing, moreover, from the firing at the fort that their pres-
ence was necessary elsewhere, the Greens and Rangers
now retreated precipitately, leaving the victorious militia of
Tryon County masters of the field.
Oriskany, essentially an accident of war, was a
place of frightful slaughter, considering the number
engaged, aoo Americans being killed, and as many
more made prisoners. General Herkimer died after-
ward from his wounds, and among the others killed,
was Thomas Spencer. Colonel Samuel Campbell,
of Cherry Valley, succeeded Herkimer in command.
It was when their ammunition gave out that the
combatants engaged at close quarters in that wild
struggle on marshy ground, with muskets, bayonets,
knives, and tomahawks. The Indians lost about
ioo men, of whom thirty-six were Senecas. As
many more Tories, and British regulars were slain.
Mary Jemison describes the Senecas as returning
home in excessive mourning, expressed by " the
most doleful yells, shrieks, and howlings and by
inimitable gesticulations."
It is interesting to recall here, that had General
Herkimer chosen to fight at Unadilla, he could have
won with seeming ease. Thus the slaughter at
192
THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY
Oriskany might have been averted. In October,
Brant declared in a letter that at Unadilla he had only
200 available warriors and not twenty pounds of
powder, which was probably true ; his assertion to
Herkimer that he had 500 men, having been made
for effect.
Meanwhile, during the battle, Colonel Willett
had led a sortie from the fort with 250 men, giving
such a surprise to Sir John Johnson, that his men
were put to flight, and the Indians retreated to the
woods. While Willett held possession of the camp
of the enemy, seven wagons were obtained from the
fort and three trips were necessary to carry back
into it the rich spoils Willett captured, which in-
cluded all the papers of the officers and five British
standards. Not a man was lost in this enterprise.
The British flags were soon hoisted over the fort,
upsidedown, below that rude specimen of the Stars
and Stripes.
St. Leger soon renewed the siege. On August
10th, Colonel Willett, in the hope of raising an-
other force to relieve the garrison, emerged from the
fort at night, with one other officer. The two men
tramped through the woods some forty miles east-
ward — a dangerous undertaking, with Indians lurk-
ing about, but successfully executed, under great
hardships. They were armed only with a spear, and
had no provisions except crackers and cheese, and
a canteen of spirits. When their supplies were ex-
hausted, they lived on berries. Having reached
German Flatts, Colonel Willett on horseback rode
to Albany, returning with Arnold to German Flatts,
where the troops assembled to march for relief of
the fort.
Arnold's coming alarmed St. Leger. That ac-
193
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
complished general had contrived to get false news
to the enemy, indicating that the force approaching
was much larger than it really was. This resulted,
on August 22d, in a hasty retreat of the motley
band which had been storming the walls of this wil-
derness fortress. They fled with so much haste that
much of their baggage and ammunition was left
behind, all of which gave great astonishment to
Colonel Gansevoort and his men in the fort, who
knew nothing of the cause for the strange retreat
they witnessed from its ramparts.
Such was Oriskany ; a battle which Horatio Sey-
mour and others have ranked as the decisive con-
flict of the Revolution. As Bennington made sup-
plies impossible for Burgoyne, so did Oriskany
dash to the ground his hopes of reinforcements.
Meanwhile the Americans holding Burgoyne in
check added constantly to their numbers until they
surpassed his forces three to one, and after an inef-
fectual attempt to break through their lines, where
Arnold once more distinguished himself, Burgoyne
was forced to surrender.
But for this frontier the battle of Oriskany had a
more personal and deeper significance. The British
had now definitely secured the co-operation of the
Indians in furthering their ambition to obtain control
of the Hudson Valley. No student of the local his-
tory that followed can fail to observe how, in Oris-
kany, was begun that border fighting which, for the
next five years, desolated the Susquehanna, Dela-
ware, Schoharie, and Mohawk Valleys. Out of
Oriskany, as effects from causes, came the burning
of Springfield and German Flatts, the massacres of
Wyoming and Cherry Valley, the expeditions of
Colonel William Butler, General John Sullivan and
194
THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY
Sir John Johnson ; the battles of Minisink, Johns-
town and Klock's Field, by which not alone were
the homes of frontiersmen made desolate, but in
greater degree those of the Indians themselves.
Heretofore the Indians in large part had shown
their intentions to be, if not those of perfect peace,
certainly not those of aggressive and initiatory war-
fare. When the Senecas returned howling and
shrieking to their homes the premonitions of war
on the settlements had been heard. Tryon Coun-
ty, whose militiamen were recruited from the set-
tlers, was to pay the penalty of the Indian losses.
Back to Oghwaga and the Mohawk went the Iro-
quois, and for all the years that the war lasted it was
now Indians and now white men who burned vil-
lages, destroyed cattle and food, captured prisoners
and killed men and women. We have been taught
to hold the red man's deeds in horror as unpro-
voked atrocities, but as this narrative goes forward
it will be an act of justice to remember the remarks
of Stone and Campbell that no son of the forest
has ever written a history of the Border Wars. In
all Stone's stately octavos is no more impressive
passage than the one in which he cites i^sop's fable
of the lion and the forester standing before a piece
of sculpture representing a man triumphant over a
lion. With a lion for sculptor the relative positions
of man and beast would certainly have been re-
versed. And so with a Mohawk Indian for his-
torian of the Border Wars. We should have had
different chronicles.
In this warfare personal revenge prompted the
red man, but not the British. The Rangers of
Colonel Butler, the Royal Greens of Sir John
Johnson, the regulars, Yagers, and Tories who co-
*9S
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
operated with Brant in laying desolate the valleys
of four rivers were deliberate and component parts
of the campaigns waged in America to uphold the
headstrong policy of a king gone wrong. Few facts
are clearer than that these frontier campaigns had
direct relation to the great conflict going on in more
settled parts. Their purpose was to make harass-
ing attacks where Washington could not wisely re-
pel them, for to repel them would have been to
weaken himself in localities where he ought to re-
main strong.
Washington's skill as a commander has impressed
students most by the masterful way in which he
made use of small resources. It is the chief marvel
in his career that a nation which had won success on
the Continent in a titanic war only half a generation
before, and which, a generation later, was to wage war
successfully against Napoleon, failed to subdue the
armies of Washington in America. He well under-
stood his own weakness — the inferiority of his troops,
alike in their numbers and in their military expe-
rience — but he perceived, with the faultless eye of a
war genius, that to England success might be pos-
sible on the seaboard, but difficult in the interior ;
for to that territory retreat lay always open to him.
Hence, his campaigns were defensive. He was
never aggressive, except when, as happened at Tren-
ton and Princeton, at Monmouth and Yorktown,
he found the enemy at complete disadvantage.
Well might Cornwallis call him " an old fox " whom
he had run down one day on the Delaware and
vainly believed he could bag the next morning —
a morning which, instead, brought to Washington
the splendid victory of Trenton, followed soon
afterward by that masterful triumph at Princeton
i 9 6
THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY
which moved the aged Frederic the Great to send
him a sword.
In this frontier warfare, as in the campaign of
Burgoyne, the British sought to weaken Washing-
ton from the rear. With the Indians for allies after
Oriskany, their aim each summer thenceforth was
to attract away from the Hudson Valley forces sta-
tioned for its defence. In that lay the purpose of
the expeditions to Wyoming and CHerry Valley,
the forces sent out to meet General Sullivan and
the campaigns that, in the last year but one of the
war lighted conflagrations throughout the Mohawk
and Schoharie valleys, and struck terror to the
hearts of their defenceless people.
197
PART V
Overthrow of the Frontier
1777-1778
Alarm Among the
Settlements
1777-1778
SCARCELY had the noise of battle died away
from Oriskany and Fort Schuyler, when fresh
invasions from Indians and Tories occurred.
Bands of them speedily returned to the Susque-
hanna Valley, invaded the Delaware settlements
from Oghwaga and made depredations in Schoharie.
Late in August a committee complained from Scho-
harie to the Council of Safety, that while they had
long foreseen the storm, and made repeated requests
for aid, they had " received nothing in return but
false epistles, neglect and contempt." The troops
promised, had been " sent another way," and they
had been " mocked with inconsistent letters, request-
ing us to defend ourselves, at a time when almost all
the neighboring settlements and the greater part of
our own inhabitants were actually in arms against
us."
They had not received one man for assistance,
" except a small party of the light-horse, which
Colonel Harper procured at the risk of his life, and
six Frenchmen, raised at his own expense." When
Colonel Harper went out to enlist men for service,
he found they had been so intimidated by the
Tories that he was unable to enlist any considerable
body. At Harpersfield the people had fallen into
the hands of a Tory named McDonald, " who
aoi
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
swore them not to take up arms against the king."
They declared that " one-half of this valuable settle-
ment of Schoharie lies in ruins and desolation, our
houses plundered, our cattle destroyed, and our well-
affected inhabitants taken prisoners and sworn not
to discover the enemies' plots or proceedings." The
committee added that Indians and Tories were
lurking in the woods, waiting for another reinforce-
ment, while the harvest, " the best in the memory
of man," was " lying rotting in the fields," and
they saw nothing but utter destruction before them.*
On September ioth, a militia force of 500 men
was promised, but it seems not to have done any
service. In October it was known that Oswego
had become a rendezvous for Indians, under Brant,
and for Tories and regulars under Colonel Butler,
and Colonel Guy Carleton. Later reports said their
numbers were rapidly increasing. Finally it was
asserted that 6,000 men had been assembled there.
New attacks were anticipated, and pathetic appeals
were again made.
Not a patriot now remained in Unadilla. Indians
were fortifying the place. Eastward along the Sus-
quehanna, the whole country was deserted, except
that Harpersfield had become a recognized settle-
ment of Tories. To Unadilla meanwhile went
deserters from the American army, and runaway
negroes. By the middle of November, Unadilla
had become a haunt of some of the worst elements
brought into activity by the Border Wars.
The size of the force of white men and Indians at
Oswego indicated the energy with which was to
be renewed the campaign St. Leger had lost. As
St. Leger had been expected to weaken the Ameri-
* Clinton Papers, vol. ii.
202
ALARM AMONG SETTLEMENTS
can forces opposing Burgoyne, so now was Colonel
Butler * to attract away from the Hudson the men
needed for its defence. Sir Henry Clinton, Howe's
successor in the British command, abandoned Phila-
delphia in the spring and started for New York.
Washington followed him, turning defeat into vic-
tory at Monmouth, and then made his way north-
ward to the Highlands of the Hudson. While
Washington held Clinton in check, Tories and
Indians were to harass the frontier. All through
the summer of 1778, this work went on successfully,
meeting with no effective opposition. Cobleskill,
Springfield, and Wyoming, tell the story of the
summer's work. It ended in November with
the crowning tragedy of the New York frontier —
the massacre of Cherry Valley.
But we must first recall certain earlier events.
When the winter of 1777-78 came on, the main
body of Indians and Tories had retired from Oswe-
go to Niagara, but a considerable number of Indians
remained to spend that season in Unadilla and
Oghwaga. William Johnston, Jr., went down from
Cherry Valley in January as a spy, and learned that
the Indian chiefs had received from Niagara letters
of instruction, and that another messenger had gone
with letters to the English in New York. Thus
was established close connection with the central
enterprise of the war — the capture of the Hudson
* Butler commanded a body of irregular troops known as Butler's
Rangers, recruited from Tories and others who sought refuge at
Oswego. Butler's Rangers played a conspicuous part in all the Border
Wars. In 1778 barracks were erected for them opposite Fort Niagara,
where has since grown up the small village known as Niagara-on-the-
Lake. On the outskirts of this village, still stands the guard-house of
Butler's Rangers. A mile distant, is the farm Butler lived on, after the
war, and in the soil of which he lies buried. On the walls of the village
church (St. Mark's) a laudatory tablet has been raised to Butler's
memory.
203
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Valley. Colonel Butler, during the winter, entered
into a new treaty with the Indians, making presents,
"and in particular 300 of Burgoyne's silver medals
to their young warriors."
Early in this period, after the Rev. William John-
ston had in vain asked for troops to be sent to
Cherry Valley, a petition, signed by about sixty citi-
zens of that place, was sent to Governor Clinton as
follows :
We have repeated information, and doubt not but it's
good authority, of the preparations Tories and Indians are
making at Yunadilla and Augquaga, where they have re-
course to the whole Old England District for their sup-
porters. Brant and his warriors are preparing to pay us a
visit, which we fear will be shortly, as it is but about forty
miles march for them. Some families are leaving their
farms and moving down into the country, and we have
great reason to fear it will be the case with us or fall a prey
to their savage barbarities.
A committee from Tryon County, about the same
time, reported to the Council of Safety :
We have lately had a scouting party to Unadilla, who
gave us information that a number of disaffected people
have collected at that place and from appearances they are
making preparations for some expeditions. Some say it is
meditated against the frontier of Ulster County, while
others say it is intended against this county. Unadilla is a
receptacle for all desertions from the army, runaway negroes,
and other bad people. We therefore judge it extremely
necessary to have that nest entirely eradicated, and until
that is done, we can never enjoy our possessions in peace,
for these villains carry off all the cattle they can find besides
robbing the well affected inhabitants.
These warnings and others coming from diverse
sources, and amply endorsed by General Philip
204
ALARM AMONG SETTLEMENTS
Schuyler, continued well into the summer of 1778.
Two friendly Indians had arrived in Cherry Valley
in March, urging the inhabitants to abandon the
place as " the enemy will be very soon in these
parts." In the same month Josiah Parke made
affidavit that in February a Tuscarora Indian had
told him the Tories and Indians meant "to strike
first on the Susquehanna near Wyoming and take
that place with 4,000 men, and then come through
to the North River." Thus early had the enemy
planned the most awful tragedy in all the frontier war-
fare — planned in February, a work that was not done
until July; while on May 25th, General Schuyler
was informed that Brant was to collect his friends
upon the Susquehanna and attack Cherry Valley.*
Some hope of securing Indian neutrality still re-
mained. At a council held on March 9th at
Johnstown, and attended by more than 700 Ind-
ians, an attempt was made to quiet them. The
Senecas alone failed to attend. With Oriskany so
recent and bloody a memory, it was strange indeed
that any Mohawks or Cayugas should have come.
The Senecas sent a communication expressing their
surprise (a surprise which is quite comprehensible)
that " while our tomahawks were sticking in their
heads, their wounds bleeding and their eyes stream-
ing with tears for the loss of their friends at Oris-
kany, the Commissioners should think of inviting
us to a treaty." Stone notes as the result of the
council that the commissioners were persuaded that
from the Senecas, Cayugas, and nearly all the Mo-
hawks, " nothing but revenge for their lost friends
and tarnished glory at Oriskany and Fort Schuyler
was to be anticipated."
* Clinton Papers, vol. ii.
205
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Lafayette had attended this council and at his in-
stance, forts were now set up in Cherry Valley and
on the Schoharie River. The Council of Safety
undertook to raise a company under Colonel
Harper, who was to have $1,000 advanced for his
expenses. He was to be " cautious of making any
attacks on the savages or pursuing any measures
that would bring on an Indian war unless absolute-
ly necessary for the defence of the inhabitants."
206
II
Cobleskill, Springfield
and
Wyoming
i 77 8
EARLY in the year Brant had reached Ogh-
waga and Unadilla. His main purpose was
not to kill frontiersmen, but to obtain food —
food for his own men and for those of Butler, who
expected soon to follow him into the Susquehanna
Valley, his destination being Wyoming. Brant also
aimed to collect men who as Tories would serve
under Butler, and was " not to fight or make any
alarm if possible to avoid it." From Oghwaga he
went first into the Delaware Valley * where he got
about seventy head of cattle and some horses, while
sixty or seventy inhabitants joined his forces and re-
turned with him to Oghwaga. For Brant's assistance
Butler had sent forward to Unadilla a man named
John Young, and to Oghwaga one named McGin-
nis, a former Susquehanna settler who had turned
Tory.
On May 30th, Brant reached the settlement of
Cobleskill f with 300 or 400 men. After burning
nine houses, he was attacked by some Continental
troops, a detachment from Colonel Ichabod Alden's
* Affidavit Barnabas Kelly, Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
t The stream from which this town derives its name was known to
the Indians as Ascalege.
207
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
regiment, which was going out to command the
Cherry Valley fort, and by militiamen from Scho-
harie. Brant forced the attacking party to retreat,
after he had killed sixteen of them, and five or six
others had perished in the houses which he burned.
One of the killed was Captain Patrick and an-
other Lieutenant Maynard. Abraham Wempel, a
few days later, buried the dead and reported that
" horses, cows, sheep, etc., lay dead all over the
fields." The settlers escaped to Schoharie, but the
Indians took away the cattle and all the provisions.
On June 5th Patrick's clothing, says McKendry,
was " sold at vendue in Albany : amount £64.,
15^." The Cobleskill settlement lay on the creek
of that name, ten miles west of Schoharie, and com-
prised nineteen families, from whom a small com-
pany of militia had been organized and provided
with arms and ammunition.
Brant went on to Cherry Valley. From one of
the hills back of the Campbell house he looked
down on the place to observe its condition. He
saw that the house was surrounded by an embank-
ment of logs and earth and that on the green were
soldiers. These soldiers, however, were small boys
parading with paper caps and wooden swords.
Brant took them for grown men and is understood
to have abandoned his intended attack in conse-
quence of his discovery. Before leaving the neigh-
borhood he caused the death of one man, an old
friend of his, Lieutenant Matthew Wormwood,* who
had come over with a message from the Mohawk
Valley. Seeing him ride past, Brant commanded
him to halt, but Wormwood rode on, and one of
Brant's men shot him, ignorant of his identity.
* Also written Warmouth.
IOS
COBLESKILL AND SPRINGFIELD
During this visit Brant approached a boy named
William McKown, aged about fourteen, who was
working alone in a hay-field. The boy raised his
rake in defence, but Brant quietly remarked : " Do
not be afraid, young man ; I shall not hurt you,"
and then made several inquiries, in the course of
which he learned the boy's name. " You are a son
of Mr. McKown who lives in the north-east part
of the town, I suppose," said he. " I know your
father very well, and a fine fellow he is too." This
friendly manner emboldened the boy to inquire the
Indian's name. After a little hesitation came the
reply : " My name is Brant." " What ! Captain
Brant?" asked the startled boy. With a smile
lighting up his dark face, Brant answered, calmly :
" No ; I am a cousin of his." This story has come
down through Campbell from the lips of both Mc-
Kown and Grant.
Rapidly spread the sense of terror which these
events caused. Colonel Jacob Klock reported to
Governor Clinton that " Unadilla has always been,
and still continues to be, a common receptacle for all
rascally Tories and runaway negroes." Relief was
prayed for, as " otherwise we shall be in one con-
tinued alarm all the season." Colonel Samuel Clyde,
of Cherry Valley, on June 5th, wrote to General
Stark, the hero of Bennington, now commanding at
Albany, sending the letter by Colonel Harper :
The inhabitants of Bowmans Creek have left their inhabi-
tations ; Springfield likewise ; and the people of Newtown
Martin [now called Middlefield] have come into our set-
tlement, and joined with us to make a stand against the
enemy. They have brought their cattle with them, and
families, so that in all we may reckon, on a moderate com-
putation, there is 600 or 700 head of cattle, and they all
209
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
feeding within the circumference of about ^ of a mile,
which must inevitably fall into the hands of the enemy, if
some immediate help is not sent us ; and our wives and
children massacred by a savage enemy. We have made the
utmost efforts to stand the enemy and protect our lives and
liberty ; but cannot stand it much longer, without very
timely assistance ; and if we should be obliged to give up
this settlement, consider what a quantity of provision is
here for the enemy ; which would enable them to harass
the other settlements continually, as they would have no
provisions to look for.
Brant lies but about 20 miles from us upon Charlotte
River, and as one party comes in, the other goes out, to the
destruction of the smaller settlements. The militia that
are with us are quite out of patience ; and we are afraid
they will leave us ; and were we to be attacked in the
place where we have made a stand — sorry we are to think
so, but more to say it — there are not over 30 men that
would stand their ground. This, Sir, is our present situa-
tion.
On June 15th, James Dean, the Indian com-
missioner, reported to General Schuyler, that Colonel
Butler had " collected a considerable party of Indians
of various tribes, with which, as he gives out, he is
determined to join Joseph Brant upon the frontier
of this country. It is supposed he is by this time as
far on his way as Oghwaga." Citizens of Schenec-
tady, on June 15th, wrote to Governor Clinton :
Your Excellency may depend on it, that it is no sham to
frighten the people, but a thing in real existence, for the
people are flying and crowding into this town in great num-
bers, and by the best information the enemy are really round
about there, and are determined to destroy, and burn up that
whole county, and unless soon relieved, we undoubtedly be-
lieve they will effect it, and the loss that will arise therefrom
to the unhappy individuals of that part of the country will be
2IO
COBLESKILL AND SPRINGFIELD
nothing in comparison to the loss of the United States, as it
is one of our principal wheat countrys.
Soon were these prophecies fulfilled. On June
1 8th, Brant reached Springfield and destroyed it.
He then destroyed Andrustown, and other settle-
ments near Otsego Lake. Colonel Klock sent the
following report to Governor Clinton :
Houses, barns, even wagons, ploughs and the hay cocks
in the meadows at Springfield were laid in ashes. Four-
teen men were carried away prisoners, and eight killed.
All the provisions were taken on horses, and carried off.
Two hundred creatures (horses and chiefly cattle) were
driven down the Susquehanna. Last Sunday morning the
enemy set off with this booty from the house of one Tun-
nicliff. All this has been done while the garrison at Cherry
Valley did not know anything about an enemy; though
Springfield is not above four miles distant from the said
place.
Several people, who have been prisoners and did escape,
affirm that Brant was the commander, and that his party
consists of about five hundred. So much is certain, that
his number encreaseth daily ; many very lately did run off,
moved by disaffection ; others join him, moved by fear, and
several are forced to take up arms against us, or to swear
allegiance to the King of Britain. We are informed and
Brant boasted openly, that he will be joined at Unadilla by
Butler, and that within eight days he will return and lay the
whole county waste. The dreadful sight of Springfield
and Andrustown, heightened with these reports, puts the
people of the county into the greatest consternation ; they
speak of nothing but flying off. Harvest time is at hand,
and no prospect of a speedy assistance. The officers and
the principal inhabitants meet with the greatest difficulties,
to persuade the people to stand out only but a few days,
until it should be in the power of the government to send
us relief.*
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
211
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
After the burning of Springfield, Captain Robert
McKean with five men was sent out from Cherry
Valley to observe Brant. They learned from Mr.
Sleeper of Factory Creek, that Brant had been at
his house the same day with fifty men. McKean
concluded to abandon his intention of going on to
Unadilla, but he left Brant a note inviting him to
Cherry Valley and promising to " change him from
a Brant to a goose." Brant was inclined to accept
this invitation, but on learning that McKean had
returned to arouse the settlement, he abandoned his
purpose.
One week after these events Barnabas Kelly, who
had lived at a settlement called Brooks's on the
Butternut Creek, reached Henry Herkimer's farm
at the foot of Schuyler's Lake and there joined a
scout from German Flatts with whom he returned
to the latter place where he made a statement under
oath in which appears the following : *
Soon after the Battle at Cobus Kill, he the said Kelly,
was at the Butter nut. About 40 white men and two
Indians bought about 17 head of horned cattle of Brooks,
Garrett, Johnson & Knapp, and about seven hundred
weight of cheese for which they gave them notes upon
Butler. Of Capt. Service, Sir John Johnson's uncle, they
got about 40 or 50 scipple of flour, and he says Capt. Ser-
vice sent word to them, that they should come and fetch
it. One Carr who lives at Major Edmeston's sent them
word that he had 40 skipple of corn for them, but whether
they got it or not he did not learn.
And further he heard that Joseph Brant had been with
Butler at Skeemonk,! about two days' journey from Ocqua-
goe, since the battle at Cobus Kill, to see what kept But-
ler so long behind, and it was supposed to be occasioned
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii. f Chemung.
212
COBLESKILL AND SPRINGFIELD
by the country's being alarmed ; and he further declareth,
that he heard John Young at the Butter nut, read a proc-
lamation from Butler, desiring all the friends to govern-
ment to join him, and to bring in all their cattle together
with their wives and families, and they should be kindly
received by the said Butler.
After the battle at Cobus Kill Brant heard that the militia
was to slay him at Youghams * on the Susquehanna, on
which Brant took 5 Indians with him, and went to Cherry
Valley to know the truth, and that they met two men, one
of whom was an express, and that they killed one and took
the other prisoner ; and the man they took prisoner was a
blacksmith, and he heard say that Brant said he was sorry
they had killed the other f for he was a good king's man.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Ford, reporting on the
burning of Springfield from Cherry Valley on July
1 8th, said he had only eighty men fit for duty be-
sides the inhabitants. He had sent out a scouting
party, but they found only the ruins of the settle-
ments, with women and children and their effects
crowded into the meeting-house, " and they are so
thick it seems to me that they must die there." A
few days later, a committee from German Flatts re-
ported to Governor Clinton that since Springfield
was destroyed, the Indians were "continually alarm-
ing us with scalping parties who sometimes kill and
scalp one and take another prisoner." From two
old men whom Brant had released they learned that
Brant expected to join Colonel Butler in about
eight days, and then " fall in on the German Flatts
and burn and destroy all that came before them."
Brant went down to Unadilla with his prisoners,
cattle and provisions, and in July wrote at that
place the following letter to Percefer Carr at Ed-
* Joachim Van Valkenburg's. t Wormwood.
213
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
meston, showing that he contemplated another at-
tack very soon :
I understand by the Indians that was at your house last
week, that one Smith lives near you, has little more corn
to spare. I should be much obliged to you if you would be
so kind as to try to get as much corn as Smith can spared :
he has sent five skipples already, of which I am much ob-
liged to him, and will see him paid and would be very glad
if you could spare one or two of your own men to join us,
especially Elias. I would be glad to see him and I wish
you could sent me as many guns you have, as I know you
have no use for them, if you any : as I mean now to fight
the cruel rebels as well as I can : Whatever you will able
to sent'd me you must sent'd by the bearer.
P.S. I heard that Cherry Valley people is very bold and
intended to make nothing of us : they called us wild geese,
but I know the contrary.
About this time, Captain Alexander Harper, " a
gentleman of veracity," reported that " the enemy
are at Unadilla very strong, amounting to nigh 3,000
men," but a month later another estimate gave the
number as only 1,500. Brant's forces had been rap-
idly increasing in his absence and a reward was of-
fered for information in regard to the fortifications
he had erected.
Early in July a party of about 250 Indians and
Tories invaded the Delaware as far down as Min-
isink, killed several men and took prisoners, cattle,
sheep and hogs back to Oghwaga. An affidavit
made by Robert Jones at Minisink on July 10th
contains the following interesting statement concern-
ing this change in the scene of Brant's operations :
From Canajoharie I went to the Butternut or Old Eng-
land District, and stayd there 10 or 11 days. Joseph
Brant came there with six Indians and 2 or 3 Green Coat
214
WYOMING
soldiers and stayd two days. He ordered the witness with
nine famelies who liv'd at that place to go with him, if
friends to government -, if not to take their own risk.
Himself and 4 families with S'd Brant went to Unadilla,
the other five soon followed. Brant did not insist on their
going, but would take their cattle. Neither would he pro-
tect them unless they went with him. After that the wit-
ness and one John Faalkner went with S'd Brant to Ogh-
waga. After being there some time an express came from
Butler to Brant ordering him to march immediately to
Tioga, which orders Brant immediately obayd and stayd
eight or nine days, saying when he returnd, that he had
been at a treaty ; that the Indians refusd to join in an ex-
pedition to the northward unless they first ware assisted to
cut off the inhabetents of Susquehanna, at which treaty it
was agreed that Butler should go to Wyoming and that
Brant should stay at Anahquago. Brant in the mean time
was to collect all the provision he could against the time
Butler was to be at Anahquago. For that purpose Brant
cald together all the old Indians who left the matter to him
as to provision, &c.
Brant then formed an expedition against Laxawaxen for
the purpose of collecting provision and went one day on his
march, when an express was sent after him requiring him
to return immediately, on account that a party from the
northward was expected to attack Unadilla. Brant im-
mediately returnd and dispatched all the white men he
could to the assistance of Unadilla and 2 days after being
last Sunday, S'd Brant followed after, with all the Indian-s
at that place. The same day five indians arrived at Agh-
quago and gave information of a large number of Sinckes
[Senecas] on their march to the same place to joyn Brant.
On Tuesday a small number collected who, under the
command of Capt'n Jacobs (an Indian) followed after
Brant. They left the examinent at Anahquago ; he made
his escape the same day. On his march says he met about
20 Indians and white men with a number of prisoners,
which they told him they got at Laxawaxen.
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
The examinant also says that Butler is not to come
down to Minisink (as he understood from Brant) but was
to go from Wyoming on an expidition against Cherry Val-
ley and to be joind by Brant, thinking it a favourable time
for the purpose as he understood the time of the militia who
guarded it is to expire next Fryday and he intends to attack
it the Sunday following.*
An invasion of the Schoharie settlements was
next undertaken. Some 300 Indians and Tories,
led by one of the McDonalds, a family now con-
spicuously active among the Tories who had fled
from Johnstown at the outbreak of the conflict,
killed several of the inhabitants, made others pris-
oners and burned houses. Their work of destruc-
tion did not end until Colonel Harper went to Al-
bany and returned with a squadron of cavalry, who,
with the militia in the fort, finally forced the in-
vaders to depart.
Colonel Butler's descent on Wyoming f followed
speedily upon the council held at Tioga Point with
Brant, at which it was agreed that Brant, instead
of going to Wyoming with Butler, should continue
his work of collecting Tories and provisions " against
the time " when Butler should reach Oghwaga after
visiting Wyoming.^ Brant's failure to take part in
the expedition was consistent with his career in this
war. His hostility and that of the Mohawks under
him was not against Pennsylvania, but against the
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
t The meaning of this word is Broad Plains.
t This was the only act on the part of Brant that approached even to
complicity in the Wyoming barbarities, and yet for more than a hundred
years, writers have continually represented that Brant shared with Butler
in the atrocities there committed. The poet Campbell gave the error
wide publicity by putting it into his "Gertrude." It has never died
out of the popular memory. Less than four years ago an eminent Ameri-
can historian inserted it in one of his books.
2l6
WYOMING
New York frontier, where lands, rightfully theirs,
were theirs no more, and where lived the men who
had overthrown them at Oriskany. That Butler
should go to Wyoming, was also consistent with
the work Butler had undertaken to do. Butler rep-
resented the cause of England, not the cause of the
Indians, and there in the Wyoming Valley, lay one
of the most populous and defenceless settlements
that existed remote from the seaboard. To attack
and destroy it, was to invite detachments for its de-
fence at the expense of the American army which
Howe, Cornwallis, and Clinton sought to overthrow.
Wyoming had been settled from Connecticut,
and under the charter granted by the king, was
claimed as a township of that State, with the name
of Westmoreland. But it was also claimed by the
heirs of William Penn. For many years before the
Revolution there had been bitter, and even armed,
controversy over this disputed ownership. During
those Pennamite wars the settlement on three occa-
sions had virtually been destroyed. As early as
1750, men from Connecticut had visited this beauti-
ful wilderness valley, and made report on its ex-
traordinary fertility. But it was not until 1762
that any from that State arrived to cultivate its soil,
and not until after the treaty of Fort Stanwix in
1768, that they came in large numbers to establish
homes upon it.
Of their interest in this territory, we have already
had glimpses in the correspondence between Dr.
Wheelock and Sir William Johnson, and of those
who were pouring into the valley after the treaty of
Fort Stanwix, notes are to be found in the Smith
and Wells Journal. Many of these Wyoming
pioneers followed the Susquehanna route from
217
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley, but others chose
the course that had been employed by those who
came as explorers in 1750. This route lay directly
across the wilderness from the Hudson through the
Minisink region to the Delaware, and thence over
the hills to the Susquehanna.
Colonel Butler started from Tioga Point, late in
June, with about 1,100 men, of whom 400 were
British, some of them his own Rangers, others Sir
John Johnson's Royal Greens, and companies of
Tories, among the latter many men whom Brant
had recruited along, and near the upper Susque-
hanna, including Adam Crysler of Schoharie, and
McGinnis of Unadilla. The 700 Indians were
largely Senecas.
Thus far in the Revolution nothing serious had
occurred to disturb the repose of Wyoming. In
all its history it had not seen so long a period of
tranquillity as the one now about to close in a
frightful tragedy. Few parts of the country were
more prosperous. The population of the entire re-
gion is believed to have reached 5,000. Practically
all its men capable of bearing arms had gone into
the army, making only one stipulation — that they
should not be employed at points too far distant
from their own homes. In this precaution are seen
the fears of an Indian attack that haunted them.
From the Pennamite Wars had survived at
Wyoming a stockade called Forty Fort. The name
is still perpetuated in the local geographical nomen-
clature. Of Colonel Butler's presence at Tioga
Point, advance word had reached Wyoming, and
within the walls of this structure some 500 women
and children assembled, with an improvised force
under one of the settlers, Colonel Zebulon Butler, a
218
WYOMING
veteran of the French war, and an officer in the
Continental Army, now home on furlough. This
force was an unorganized, inexperienced body, com-
posed of old men and beardless boys, the only adult
males who had not enlisted. Of Colonel John
Butler's coming, word had been sent to Philadel-
phia, and a Continental detachment, composed of
many Wyoming men, had been sent for relief of
the inhabitants. The inexperienced men who gath-
ered in the fort, in the rashness of bravery, over-
ruled the wishes of Colonel Zebulon Butler when
the enemy appeared, and although there were only
300 of them, they rushed forward out of the fort
to attack the motley and disciplined fighters from
Tioga Point, outnumbering them nearly four to
one.
The result of this battle on July 3d was appall-
ing. Many were shot down at once. Others were
captured, tomahawked and scalped. While Queen
Esther sang her war-song above them, fourteen had
their brains dashed out. Throughout the valley
the torch and tomahawk completed the work of
desolation, many women and children finding safety
by taking flight to the woods, where they perished
from exposure. With a misrepresentation that
must have been consciously cynical, Crysler de-
scribed this barbarous scene as " an engagement in
which about 460 * of the enemy were killed." He
added that " from there we went to Oghwaga."
The Continental regiment reached Wyoming
only to witness a scene of slaughter and desolation.
A populous and prosperous settlement had virtu-
ally been annihilated. Commanded by Colonel
Hartley, and reinforced by a few militia companies,
* Crysler's estimate of the number killed is too large by at least ioo.
219
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
this regiment proceeded up the valley against sev-
eral Indian towns toward Oghwaga. Some of these
were destroyed. Their ruins were discovered in the
following summer by the soldiers who came into the
country under General Sullivan. Colonel Hartley
took several prisoners, but on learning that the Ind-
ians and Tories had assembled at Oghwaga and
Unadilla in large numbers, he found it unwise to
continue his pursuit.
Colonel John Butler, in this enterprise at Wyo-
ming, is believed to have received encouragement
and active assistance from partisans of the Penna-
mite cause, who, during the Revolution, were mainly
Tories. In them still survived an ancient bitterness
toward the settlers from Connecticut that was now
rendered all the more intense because, almost to a
man, those settlers had become devoted supporters
of the American cause. Events had thus greatly
widened the breach, but the success of the Revolu-
tion gave to these Connecticut families double
cause for rejoicing. It released them from two
enemies at once — the Pennamite partisans and
George III. One may easily comprehend, there-
fore, the enthusiasm with which a local patriotic
society * gathers each year on July 3d, at the base
of the Wyoming Monument, in commemoration of
those who perished in the appalling tragedy on that
frontier field of Pennsylvania.
That many of the frontier settlements in New
York might have been saved from destruction is as
obvious as it is melancholy to recall. Warning after
warning had been sent to the authorities, and yet
practically nothing — nothing at least that was effec-
tive — had been done for their protection. The
* The Wyoming Commemorative Association of Wilkesbarre.
220
WYOMING
frontiersmen were left to defend themselves with the
aid of such small companies of militia as could be
gathered. As early as April 8, 1778, General
Conway sent word to Governor Clinton that the
people on the frontier insisted that a " small party
of Continental troops should be without delay sta-
tioned at Harpersfield and Schoharie to quiet the
minds of the inhabitants, prevent them from mov-
ing, and to give time for collecting the militia that is
ordered to be raised."
General Clinton, ten days later, wrote to General
Conway advising that a company or two of Conti-
nental troops be sent to the frontier to act with the
militia. From this correspondence the only result
down to July appears to have been Captain Pat-
rick's small force so disastrously overwhelmed at
Cobleskill. On July 20th General Clinton was
advised that if Continental troops did not come the
consequences " were to be dreaded, for harvest time
had arrived, and it was with the utmost difficulty that
the militia could be induced to turn out." Of 600
who had been ordered out in June, only 200 had
reported. If Continentals did not arrive, Colonel
Klock feared the whole county of Tryon must
meet the fate of Springfield. " It is much to be
lamented," wrote General Schuyler to Governor
Clinton, " that the finest grain country in this state
is on the point of being entirely ruined for want of
a body of Continental troops."
On whom full responsibility rests for this neglect,
perhaps cannot be said, but a large measure of it
must fall to General Horatio Gates, then in com-
mand of the Northern Department. The main
fact, of course, was that the Hudson Valley needed
for its defence, now as before, the fullest force pos-
221
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
sible. Here was the central ground of the conflict,
for control of which had been fought the battles
of Long Island, Harlem Heights, Trenton, Prince-
ton, Saratoga, the Brandywine, Germantown, and
Monmouth ; but the Hudson was now more secure
than it had ever been, and men enough ought to
have been spared for the protection of the frontier
where lay the granary of the northern colonies.
General Gates has many blunders, if not worse
things, at the door of his unhonored memory, and
one of them is neglect of the New York frontier.
Governor Clinton wrote from his heart when he
said to James Duane, on August ioth : " It is much
to be regretted that the operations which were in-
tended by Congress against the Indians have hitherto
been so utterly neglected by the commanding officer
of the Northern Department." He promised later
on to tell Duane the reasons which he thought had
influenced Gates's conduct.
•222
Ill
German Flatts Destroyed
i 77 8
DISASTER was soon to enter the Mohawk
Valley. Well up the stream, and not far
from the Fort Stanwix line of 1768, stood
the thriving settlement of German Flatts, which was
now to meet a fate that recalled the one which over-
whelmed it during the French War. Here was a
settlement that marked almost the farthest advance
westward on the Mohawk. A few miles south of
it, by passing over the high lands, the traveller
reached the head-waters of the Unadilla River.
Warning after warning had been given that Ger-
man Flatts was in danger. But it was not until
July 24th that a Continental force reached the fron-
tier. On that day Colonel Alden's long-expected
regiment arrived in Cherry Valley, but this lay
many miles to the eastward of German Flatts and
on another water-shed. Captain Benjamin Warren
has described the scene when this regiment arrived :
About four o'clock arrived at the garrison, which was
a meeting-house picketted in, with a large number of dis-
tressed inhabitants crowded in, men, women, and children :
drew some rum before the men and placed them in their
several quarters. The inhabitants received us with the
greatest tokens of joy and respect, and it was like a gen-
eral jail delivery. They began to take the fresh air and
move into the nearest houses from their six weeks' confine-
ment in that place.
Sunday, 26th. About eleven o'clock returned to the
223
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
garrison, where we had a sermon preached by the Rev.
Mr. Johnston * from these words : " Be of good cheer and
play the man for our people, and the cities of our God,
and the Lord will do what seemeth Him good."
Word reached Cherry Valley on August ioth
that Brant intended making an attack, " in conse-
quence of which," says Warren, " Captain Ballard,
with a party of sixty men, was sent out to make dis-
covery." Ballard went to Butternut Creek, where
were still dwelling several Tory families, while the
remaining troops occupied themselves with strength-
ening the fort. Ballard brought back seventy-three
heads of cattle, forty sheep, fourteen horses, and
fourteen Tories. The next day Ballard set out for
Albany with the Tories. Another scouting expe-
dition under an officer named Wheelock went to
Unadilla, and other scouts were constantly employed
for two months, Warren's account of them being
as follows :
Aug. 1 6th. A small scout of six men went out near
Tunacliss',t fell in with a small party of the Indians, killed
one, but the rest escaped.
Aug. 19th. On receiving intelligence by one of our
scouts that Brant and his party were to be at Tunacliss', a
party of one hundred and fifty men commanded by Col.
Stacy marched by the way of the foot of Lake Osago [Ot-
sego] ; came to houses about seventeen miles and lodged
there [Warren was in the party] .
Aug. 2is-t. This morning about daybreak paraded,
marched through low and swampy ground. About ten
o'clock crossed two creeks and twelve o'clock arrived on a
mountain, looking down on Tunacliss' house : made no dis-
covery of the enemy : sent a party each way to the right
and left to surround the house ; we then rushed down ;
* William Johnston, the Sidney pioneer. t Richfield.
224
GERMAN FLATTS DESTROYED
found none of them, though a sumptuous meal prepared
for the enemy, who on our arrival at the house fired a gun
in the woods near us and some were seen to run off. The
women would give us no information, but a lad being
threatened, informed that some Indians had been there
that morning. We made good use of the victuals and pro-
ceeded to the foot of Schuyler's lake ; forded the creek, and
marched down to Schuyler's house, about nine miles ; made
no discovery of the enemy ; lodged there.
We sent a scout down to Tunadilla, who took three
prisoners out of their beds and came off undiscovered ; who
gave information on examination that Brant was to muster
and arm his men the next day, and march for this place
[Cherry Valley] or the Flats; that his party was about
400 or 500 strong.
McKendry says this scout was McKean and that
he returned on September 9th. One of the pris-
oners was an inhabitant of Unadilla, who said that
Brant had issued orders " for a meeting, in order
to draw ammunition ; that there was an expedition
going on, but could not tell which way." He said
the number of Indians and Tories was" reported to
be 2,000." The other prisoner told the same story
as to an expedition, but placed the number of the
enemy at 400 to 600, of whom 100 were at Una-
dilla, the others at Oghwaga.
At German Flatts Brant had been expected all
through the summer. In September nine men from
that place were sent down the Unadilla River to
learn what he was doing. At the Edmeston settle-
ment some Indians surprised and killed three of
them, driving the others into the Unadilla River.
John Adam Helmer fled back in hot haste to the
settlement with news that Brant was advancing with
a large force. Helmer arrived with his clothing
225
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
" torn to tatters, his eyes bloodshot, his hands, face,
and limbs lacerated, and bleeding from the effects of
the brambles and bushes through which he had
forced his headlong flight."
An hour later, on September 1 7th, Brant, with 310
Tories and 152 Indians, arrived, and camped in a
ravine for the night, ignorant of the fact that Hel-
mer's warning had sent all the inhabitants into the
neighboring forts — Forts Herkimer and Dayton —
occupying the two sides of the river. In the gray
of the morning Brant set fire to the settlement, and
the people in the forts were thus able to witness
the destruction of their homes. All that was left
standing of the settlement around Fort Dayton
comprised the fort, church, and two houses. An
attempt to take the fort proved unsuccessful.
Across the river the enemy " burned all the houses,
barns and grain, quite down to the church," but at
the fort " we sallied out with what men we could
spare and kept them from destroying any more
houses." * There were 62 houses burned, 57 barns,
4 mills, all the furniture and grain, and a good
many hogs were killed. On his return down the
river to Unadilla, Brant carried away 235 horses,
229 cattle, 269 sheep, and 93 oxen.
Soon after Brant started to return, a militia force
of 300 or 400 men set out in pursuit, but went
only as far as Edmeston, where they buried the
three scouts whom the Indians had killed. At Ed-
meston lived Brant's friend Carr, who met a hard
fate. Some Oneidas invaded his estate, killed his
servants and carried the family into captivity, where
they remained until the war closed. A story has
come down that a horse left on the farm was found
* Colonel Bellinger's Report, printed in the Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
226
GERMAN FLATTS DESTROYED
still there when they returned in 1783, having sur-
vived all the hardships of its lonely lot.
Some Oneidas and Tuscaroras soon afterward in-
vaded the Unadilla Valley, burnt several houses, re-
took some of the German Flatts cattle, and brought
back a number of prisoners. In their report the
Indians said :
We have now taken the hatchet and burnt Unadilla and
a place called the Butternutts. We have brought five pris-
oners from each of the above places. Our warriors were
particular that no hurt should be done to women and chil-
dren. We left four old men behind who were no more
able to go to war. The Grass Hopper, one of the Oneida
chiefs, took to himself one of the prisoners to live with him
in his own family ; his name is William Lull, and has
adopted him as his son. Brothers, we deliver to you six
prisoners with whom you are to act as you please.
The other prisoners were Robert McGinnis, John
McGinnis, John Harrison, Michael Stopplopen,
Barry Laughlin, Moses Thurston, Caleb Lull, and
Benjamin Lull. Captain Warren says of the action
taken at Cherry Valley on receipt of the news from
German Flatts :
Immediately on our receiving intelligence, which was
twenty-four hours after it was done, though but twelve
miles distant, Major Whiting went out with one hundred
and eighty men, who pursued them as far as the Butternuts,
but could not overtake them. He took three of their
party, tories, and brought them in with some stock they
left in their hurry. Brant's party, fearing the country would
be upon their backs, made what haste back they could. A
division of them arrived first at Tunadilla, and found the
place had been beset with our people and put off immediately.
Failing still to secure adequate aid from the State
or national authorities, a committee writing from
227
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Canajoharie on September 28th, made the following
appeal to Governor Clinton :
Woeful Experience teaches us that the Troops in Cherry
Valley are by no means a Defence for any other Part of
the Country. Strange as it may appear to your Excellency,
it is no less true, that our Militia by Desertion to the En-
emy and by Enlistments into our Service, are reduced to
less than seven hundred Men. Indeed if these 700 would
do their Duty and act like Men, we might perhaps give the
Enemy a Check, so as to give Time to the Militia from
below to come up, but, Sir, they are actuated by such an
ungovernable Spirit that it is out of the Power of any Officer
in this County to command them with any Credit to him-
self — for notwithstan'g the utmost Exertion the Officers
have nothing but Blame in return.
From the Information we are able to collect from Pris-
oners and otherwise, we learn that the Enemy, when at
the German Flatts, were 500 or upwards strong, commanded
by a Capt. Caldwell. That they intended soon to make an-
other Incursion, and that a Reinforcement of 5 or 600
were on its March from the western Nations of Indians to
join the Enemy, Indians being frequently seen and our
People fired upon, seems in our opinion to indicate a speedy
Return of the Enemy.
228
IV
The Burning of Unadilla
and Oghwaga
i 77 8
VIGOROUS measures were now to be em-
ployed against the enemy. Heretofore they
had practically had no opposition. The man
to whom was committed this work was another man
named Butler — Colonel William Butler. With his
regiment of Scotch-Irish and four companies of
Morgan's Riflemen, Butler, in August, was stationed
at Schoharie. Late, indeed, was his coming, and he
had come as the result of many passionate appeals.
Had he or some other commander come earlier with
a force strong enough to have held Unadilla against
an advance, this whole story of desolation in Schoharie
and around Otsego Lake might never have been told.
Governor Clinton, on May 30th, the day of the
battle of Cobleskill, had conveyed to Colonel Klock
his wishes that a detachment of militia commanded
by Colonel Clyde be sent to Unadilla. He be-
lieved it would be " attended with very important
consequences." As events turned out in Coble-
skill, a mere detachment sent to Unadilla probably
would have been annihilated. On June 11th Gov-
ernor Clinton, referring to Colonel Alden's assign-
ment to Cherry Valley, wrote :
No force that can be collected will be able to afford full
protection to the inhabitants unless the flying party by
229
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
whom they are distressed can be routed at the places where
they usually rendezvous. This, I am informed, is Una-
dilla. I would therefore advise an expedition against that
place, if you and Gen. Stark shall judge it practicable.
On July i st General Ten Broeck advised Gov-
ernor Clinton that " the people of Tryon County
are much for the enterprise to Unadilla." They
had requested him to appoint the officers to com-
mand it. There were reasons why it was thought
the command ought to fall to Colonel Peter R.
Livingston ; but Ten Broeck was not in favor of
Livingston, and suggested that a Continental officer,
and perhaps Colonel Marinus Willett, be named in-
stead. Governor Clinton was favorable to Colonel
Willett, but he seems not to have been available,
being wanted elsewhere. Meanwhile had occurred
the burning of Springfield and the massacre of Wy-
oming.
On July 1 1 st we find Governor Clinton suggest-
ing to Washington that Colonel Butler's Continen-
tal regiment, " instead of halting at Wawarsing,
should proceed immediately at least as far north as
Schoharie, as it is most probable the next attempt
of the enemy will be against that settlement." On
July 29th Colonel Butler was in Albany and com-
plained to Governor Clinton :
Gen. Stark, on my showing him my instructions, said
it was impossible to carry on offensive operations against
the enemy at present, and (to make use of his own words)
it would be like pulling a cat by the tail to get out the
militia at this time. He says some time hence we may
attack them and intimates that he intends to command the
expedition himself. He has also ordered Col. Alden to
join his regiment now lying at Cherry Valley, which de-
prives me of the honor your Excellency intended me in
230
COLONEL WILLIAM BUTLER
the command of the whole. If your Excellency thinks
me worthy of the command and empowers me to carry on
offensive measures against the enemy, I will do it at the
risk of my honor and everything I hold sacred. If this
cannot be, I will do my duty in the command of my de-
tachment.*
Two days later Butler had reached Schoharie
with his regiment and reported that the accounts of
the enemy " are exceeding various, but from the
best intelligence that I have yet been able to get
they are about fifteen hundred in number at Una-
dilla." He had made an addition to the fort in
Schoharie and mounted two pieces of artillery. On
August 13 th he wrote further to Governor Clinton:
On my arrival here I found three forts erected by the
inhabitants for their protection within four miles of each
other. I took post at one I thought most liable to be at-
tacked and immediately sent out a subaltern with a small
scout to reconnoitre the country, and to make what dis-
coveries he could of the enemy. He proceeded about 25
miles to one Service's, a noted villain, who had constantly
supply'd the enemy with necessaries. Service luckily was
at home, and upon his refusing to surrender, and making
some resistance, one of the party shot him. They also
brought in 4 prisoners.
Before the return of the scout I received intelligence
from Genl. Stark of one Smith who had raised a number
of Tories and was marching to join the enemy. I im-
mediately detached Capt. Long, of the Rifle Corps, with a
party to intercept their march. Captain Long fell in with
them, kill'd Smith and brought in his scalp, brought in also
one prisoner and it is thought wounded a number. Only
one of Capt. Long's party was wounded.
With the prisoners taken by the first party, there was
some letters from Smith to Butler and Brant, informing
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
23I
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
them that he would meet them at Service's on Sunday
following with a number of Tories whom he had engaged.
I also had intelligence that the intention of the enemy was
to march in a body to Service's and there divide, one
party to attack Cherry Valley and the other this place.
Except in these instances I have been obliged to act
totally on the defensive ; the little dependence that can be
put in the few militia that do turn out, the disaffection of
most of the inhabitants to us, the distance and wilderness
of country that we have to pass through to the enemy
without the necessaries for such an expedition, make it
very difficult in my present situation to act otherwise.
Since my coming here numbers of the disaffected people
begin to have a proper sense of their error, and are hourly
coming in, begging protection, and are desirous of taking
the oath of fidelity to the States.*
Service's house was in Harpersfield. The local
tradition concerning his fate is that when Captain
Long and his men surrounded his house, two of
them, David Elerson and Timothy Murphy, en-
tered and made Service a prisoner. Watching for
his opportunity, Service seized an axe and was aim-
ing for Murphy's head when a shot from Elerson
brought him dead to the floor. Murphy became a
picturesque figure in the Border Wars. He came
originally from Virginia and owed much of his suc-
cess to his accuracy of aim and his double-barrelled
rifle, of whose peculiar utility the Indians seem to
have been ignorant. He acquired many of the arts
of the Indians in warfare, and was known to scalp
his victims. It was said at the close of the war that
he had personally killed forty Indians.
Of Murphy many striking tales have been nar-
rated — some of them almost too good to be true.
* Clinton Papers, vol. iii.
232
TIMOTHY MURPHY
He was once sent out with a small company of
riflemen to destroy an Indian and Tory village near
Unadilla. A contributor to Jay Gould's book re-
lates that " after a laborious march through marshes
and over mountains in which they endured innu-
merable privations, they arrived in sight of the village,
which lay in a beautiful valley. They remained on
the mountain until midnight, when they advanced
slowly and cautiously. Luckily most of the Ind-
ians were asleep, and after a warm contest, in which
clubs, fists, feet, and tomahawks were used by the
old Indians, squaws, and papooses, and were resent-
ed by the riflemen with fists, feet, and the ends of
their guns, the village was reduced to ashes." Be-
fore the riflemen returned home, the Indian war-
riors reached their ruined village and killed several
of the men. But Murphy and some others es-
caped, Murphy finding a hiding-place in a large
hollow log. It so happened that the Indians chose
their camping-place that night near this log, so that
Murphy was obliged to spend the night as comfort-
ably as he could. On the following morning, when
one Indian remained alone in the camp, Murphy
killed that man and made his escape.
Meanwhile Colonel Cantine was commanding
some militia on the frontier of Ulster and Orange
counties. On September 6th Governor Clinton
wrote to him : " I am fully convinced that we are
not to have peace on our frontier until the strag-
gling Indians and Tories who infest it are extermi-
nated or driven back and their settlements destroyed.
If, therefore, you can destroy the settlement at
Oghwaga, it will, in my opinion, be a good piece of
service."
This work was to be undertaken by other hands,
*33
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
and very soon. Colonel Butler's plans for an ex-
pedition to Unadilla having finally met with the ap-
proval of General Stark, Butler, about September
20th, sent out four men as scouts, who returned
with three prisoners from Unadilla and reported
that the number of the enemy at that place reached
300 and at Oghwaga 400, while the number at
Tioga Point could not be ascertained. A scout
who went to Unadilla some days later (possibly
Murphy) returned word that the Indians had fled.
Butler now started for the Susquehanna with his
regiment, the riflemen, and some Indians — in all
about 500 men, according to Warren. He crossed
the hills from Schoharie to the Delaware, and thence
proceeded to the Ouleout, which he reached below
the site of Franklin village, following the stream to
the Scotch Settlement, Albout. An account of the
expedition is contained in a letter, written by But-
ler himself to General Stark. Having described the
march as far as the Ouleout, Butler says :
Oct. 6. Began our march early this morning and at
dusk arrived within eight miles of the Unadilla settlement.
I here detailed Lieuts. Stewart and Long, with small par-
ties, to make prisoners of some inhabitants who lived with-
in four miles of Unadilla. I then continued my road in
the night, in order to be better concealed and within a
smaller distance from the settlement from whence I might
make the attack early in the morning. But after having
reached about seven miles I met the parties who were de-
tached with one prisoner; he told me the enemy had
left the place some days before and were gone to Ana-
quago.
Butler now started for the Johnston Settlement,
taking the trail on the Sidney side of the river. On
October 8th, early in the morning, he says he " de-
234
UNADILLA BURNT
tailed Lieutenant Stewart with four men to Una-
dilla to make a prisoner of one Glagford who I
intended should guide me to Anaquago." Stewart
secured his man, the sole occupant of the place, and
" after the troops had cooked their provisions and
rested themselves a little, marched five miles beyond
Unadilla." Of the destruction of Oghwaga the
best account is given by Captain William Gray, one
of Butler's officers, who says :
We marched down the river Susquehanna for Oghquaga,
the chief Indian town, where we thought to start a party of
savages and Tories by surprise ; but we happened unluckily
to be discovered by some scouting savages who made the
best of their way. We could not come up with them,
though our scouting party travelled all night to no purpose.
We got to Oghquaga about io o'clock at night, which we
found evacuated, also in greatest disorder. Everything
seemed as if they had fled in greatest haste. Next morning
we set the town (which consisted of 30 or 40 good houses)
in flames, destroying therein great quantities of household
furniture and Indian corn. The same day we marched
from Oghquaga up the river to another town called Cuna-
hunta, burning some Indian houses and corn on the road.
From there we marched very early, leaving it in flames.
Gray says that on their return, when they came
to the river about one and a half miles below the
mouth of the Unadilla, it was " dreadful to see so
large a stream to the man's breast, and very rapid
and rising at the rate of one inch a minute, but by
the pressing desire of the men to get on and the dil-
igence of the officers with their own and the pack
horses they were all got over safe, which if we had
been but an hour longer we could not have crossed,
and God only knows what would have been the
dreadful consequences." Butler's letter, under date
235
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
of October ioth, describes the burning of the
houses near the mouth of the Unadilla :
October 10. This day we burned all the houses in the
Unadilla settlement that were on the south side of the Sus-
quehanna, except Glagford's. We also burned a saw and
grist mill, the latter the only one in the country.
October n. This day I ordered the troops to rest and
clean their arms, and prepared a raft to transport some men
on the Susquehanna to burn the other part of the Unadilla
settlement. Lieut. Long, with one private, crossed in the
raft and burned all the houses. According to my compu-
tation I think there were upwards of 4,000 bushels of grain
destroyed at Anaquago and Unadilla.
Gray says the expedition proceeded the same
evening " up the east side of the river as far as the
Scotch Settlement, burning all we met along that
could be of any use to the enemy. We could not
march thence on Sunday by reason of the great
rains. On Monday we marched, burning some
Tory houses before we set out, and encamped in the
woods that night." This camping place was at the
mouth of Handsome Brook.*
After an absence of sixteen days the expedition
reached Schoharie with forty-nine captured horses
and fifty-two horned cattle. Including the officers
there were 160 men in the command. Warren's
statement that there were 500 men is obviously an
error. Besides the 4,000 bushels of grain found at
the two settlements, there was a large quantity of
vegetables and poultry, besides several dogs and
household goods. Butler's men fared sumptuously.
Stone says Oghwaga " was uncommonly well built
* The map that accompanies Gray's letter shows that the Scotch Set-
tlement lay on both sides of the Ouleout, and that there were Indian
huts farther up the stream.
236
OGHWAGA DESTROYED
for an Indian settlement, there being a considerable
number of good farm-houses on either side of the
river. These were all destroyed, together with the
Indian castle three miles farther down the river, as
also large quantities of provision intended for their
winter's supply." Butler describes Oghwaga as
" the finest Indian town I ever saw."
The Indians had left Oghwaga only the day be-
fore Butler arrived, and had made their way to the
Delaware at Cookoze,* whence they descended upon
some of the Minisink settlements. Brant had ioo
men with him, and besides killing several persons,
burned barns well filled with the year's crops and
carried off many cattle. By the time Butler reached
Schoharie, Brant had probably arrived in Oghwaga
to learn of the fate that had overtaken his principal
base of supplies.
* Sometimes written Cook House and now Deposit. Here, in 1858,
eighty years after these events, a granddaughter of Brant was killed in
an accident to a train on the Erie Railroad while the train was standing
at the station. She was buried in Owego.
2 37
The Cherry Valley Massacre
i 77 8
THE massacre of Cherry Valley followed
speedily upon the destruction of Unadilla
and Oghwaga, and may be traced directly to
Colonel Butler's drastic work. Although an attack
had long been contemplated, this massacre as to its
immediate causes was an act of retaliation.
Four Indian chiefs, a month after the attack, de-
clared to Colonel Cantine that " your rebels came
to Oghwaga when we Indians were gone, and you
burned our houses, which made us and our brothers,
the Seneca Indians, angry, so that we destroyed
men, women, and children at Cherry Valley." *
Many of the Indians had a bitter hatred of Cherry
Valley, for there lived Colonel Samuel Clyde f and
Colonel Samuel Campbell, both of whom had been
conspicuous in the battle of Oriskany.J Another
motive on the part of the Indians had survived from
the massacre of Wyoming, four months before. At
the capitulation of Forty Fort, Colonel Dennison
had entered into an agreement not to serve against
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
t Colonel Clyde's wife was Catherine Wasson, a niece of Dr. Matthew
Thornton, of Londonderry, N. H., one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. Her early home was at Amsterdam, where she had
known Brant as a boy playmate of her brothers.
$ Dr. James D. Clyde, of Cherry Valley, still possesses the British
musket with which Colonel Clyde was knocked down in this battle.
The soldier was about to run him through with the bayonet when an
American shot the soldier, the ball tearing away a piece of the stock of
the gun.
238
O ~
X «
£ 1
C 35
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
the forces of Great Britain again, but when Colonel
Hartley set out in pursuit of Colonel John Butler
and destroyed some Indian towns on the upper
Susquehanna, Dennison went with him. This had
deepened the feeling of resentment on the part of
the Indians toward all settlers on the frontier. Still
another motive of revenge sprang from the breast of
a white man — one who has been commonly accepted
as the master fiend in this tragedy.
Just before the Indian council assembled at Ti-
oga Point, Brant had been on his way to Niagara
for the winter. He had the misfortune somewhere
on the Susquehanna beyond Oghwaga to fall in with
Captain Walter Butler. Butler had recently been
tried at court-martial and punished with imprison-
ment as a spy, this court having been ordered by
Benedict Arnold. In April he had made his es-
cape and was now anxious for revenge. He found
the Senecas and some of the other Indians stirred
to revenge quite willing to join him in an expedition
to Cherry Valley. Brant argued against the expe-
dition but was induced to yield. His opposition
probably sprang in part from his dislike of Walter
Butler. Butler, moreover, was to command the ex-
pedition, and this was not pleasing to Brant.
It was strange that General Hand, who was now
in command at Albany, had failed to make adequate
preparations against an attack. So far from doing
so he seems to have contemplated an actual re-
moval from Cherry Valley of its only defence,
Colonel Alden's regiment. On October 12th
Captain Warren wrote in his diary that the regi-
ment was " likely to be removed from here soon."
Early in November General Hand went himself to
Cherry Valley, and Warren writes that during his
239
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
stay " an express arrived from Fort Schuyler in-
forming that one of the Oneidas was at a council of
war of the enemy's in which it was determined to
visit Cherry Valley." This message came from
Colonel Gansevoort and stated that the council had
been held at Tioga Point, which, in fact, was the
case.
General Hand thereupon returned to the Mo-
hawk Valley, and ordered Colonel Klock to " send
immediately aoo men " to reinforce Cherry Val-
ley. He sent word that Klock would arrive on
November 9th. On the 7th twenty citizens had
signed a letter to Hand expressing great fears of an
early attack and adding " to prevent which and to
disappoint our fears, Oh, General, let a sufficient
number of troops be allowed us, and if possible
those we now have under Colonel Alden, as they
now are acquainted with our country and the roads
and haunts of our enemy ; so that by their means
we may be secured from slaughter and devastation."
Although Colonel Klock was only twenty miles
away he failed to reach Cherry Valley on Novem-
ber 9th as promised. When he did arrive he was
too late. The massacre had already occurred.
The attacking force, marching from Tioga Point,
received additions on its way up the Susquehanna
until 800 men, of whom 600 were Indians, 150
Tories, 50 British troops, and 4 British officers,
were collected, including Senecas under Hiokatoo.
On November 9th Colonel Alden, hearing noth-
ing from Colonel Klock, sent a scouting party of
one sergeant and eight men down the valley. They
soon met the advancing invaders and were made
prisoners. Two days later, at midday, the attack on
Cherry Valley was made. The enemy did not come
240
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
directly along the highway that followed the creek,
but descended from a hill below the village where
they had spent the night, a spot now frequently
pointed out to travellers. They gave the settle-
ment a complete surprise, " notwithstanding all our
endeavors to the contrary," wrote Major Whiting.
One of the most shocking incidents connected
with the massacre was the first — the killing of the
Robert Wells family, comprising nine members and
three servants. Every one of the family, except
John Wells, a son then attending school in Sche-
nectady, was murdered. The Wells house was on
the site of the Lindesay settlement of 1739, now
known as the Phelan place, an elevated and beauti-
ful spot, just below the village. Captain Wells him-
self was killed by a Tory who boasted afterward
that he did this while Captain Wells was on his
knees in prayer. Wells's daughter Jane fled to
a place behind a pile of wood, but a Seneca Indian
found her there and slew her with his tomahawk.
Captain Wells had been intimately associated with
Sir William Johnson in his official work and was
one of the best-known men on the frontier. When
Colonel Butler heard of his fate he said, " I would
have gone miles on my hands and knees to have
saved that family, and why my son did not do so
God only knows." Brant had known the family
for many years, and his comment was that they were
as dear to him as his own.
Colonel Alden had fled from this house as he
saw the enemy approaching, hoping to reach the
fort, but he was killed on the road by a blow from
a tomahawk. One of the scouting party was forced
to guide the enemy to the quarters of the officers
who were living in private houses outside the
241
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
fort. When the advance was made on the fort,
Whiting says, " had it not been for the great ac-
tivity and alertness of the troops, they had rushed
within the lines. We had about six or eight of the
regiment killed." Warren's account is as follows :
The enemy pushed vigorously for the Fort, but our
Soldiers behaved with great spirit and alertness ; defended
the Fort, and repulsed them after three hours and a half
smart engagement. Twelve of the regiment beside the
Col. killed, and two wounded.
Nov. 12. — The Indians came on again, and gave a shout
for rushing on, but our cannon played on them back ; they
soon gave way ; they then went round the settlement, burnt
all the buildings, mostly the first day, and collected all the
stock and drove the most of it off, killed and captured all
the inhabitants, a few that hid in the woods excepted, who
have since got into the fort.
Nov. 13 — In the afternoon and morning of the 13th we
sent out parties after the enemy withdrew ; brought in the
dead ; such a shocking sight my eyes never beheld before of
savage and brutal barbarity ; to see the husband mourning
over his dead wife, with four dead children lying by her side,
mangled, scalpt, and some of the heads, some the legs
and arms cut off, some the flesh torn off their bones by their
dogs — twelve of one family all killed and four of them burnt
in his house.
Saturday 14th. — The enemy seem to be gone; we sent
out to collect what was left of cattle or anything ; found
some more dead and buried them.
Sunday 15th — This day some provisions arrived, being the
first supply after the first attack, when we had not a pound
of bread for men in garrison for four or five days, but a
trifle of meat. In the afternoon a scout we thought had
been taken by them, a sergeant and eight arrived in safe.
But some they took prisoners they let go again ; informed
they had a number wounded, and we saw a number of them
fall, so that we have reason to think killed more of them
242
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
than they killed of our regiment, though they butchered
about 40 women and children, that have been found. It
came on to storm before the engagement began ; first with
rain, but for the day past it has been a thick snowstorm.
Monday 16th — The snow continued falling and is al-
most knee deep on a level.
Though there were 300 men between this and the river
[Mohawk] most of them together before we were attacked,
yet they came within four miles and laid there until they
were assured the enemy was gone off - .* Col. [William]
Butler, though near forty miles off, marched and got near
and would have been the first to our assistance, had we not
sent him word they were gone off. We are here in a schock-
ing situation ; scarcely an officer that has anything left
but what they have on their backs. f
The citizens killed were thirty in number, and
seventy-one others were made prisoners, the most of
them being released afterward. The number of
houses burned was twenty, of barns twenty-five, and
of mills two. During the night after the attack
many inhabitants were shut out from the fort
" where they lay all night in the rain with the chil-
dren who suffered most." One of the prisoners was
a boy named Campbell whose son William W. was
afterward to write the well-known history of these
times.
Among those who escaped were the Johnstons.
Hugh Johnston, then a lad, saw from the fort the
* Warren refers here to Colonel Klock's dilatory action under General
Hand's orders. Warren's Diary is in the Spark's Collection of Manu-
scripts at Harvard.
t McKendry gives the names of the Continentals who were killed as
follows : Ichabod Alden, Robert Henderson, Thomas Sheldon, Gideon
Day, Benjamin Adams, Thomas Mires (sic), Thomas Hilden, Daniel
Dudley, Enos Blakeley, Thomas Noles, Oliver Deboll, Simeon Hopkins,
and Robert Bray. Those made prisoners were : Colonel William Stacey,
Lieutenant Aaron Holden, Ensign Andrew Garret, Sergeant Suzer de
Bean, and eleven privates whose names McKendry does not give.
243
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
advance of the Indians and hastened to Mrs. Can-
non's house, where his father lived, and gave the
warning by which the Dominie, his wife, and chil-
dren were able to hasten to the woods and there
secrete themselves. From this point of safety they
witnessed the destruction of the settlement. A lad
seven years old who accompanied them was David
McMaster, a grandson of the Dominie, who settled
in Unadilla after the war. Mr. Johnston had now
lived in Cherry Valley for more than a year. A
month before the massacre he had married Captain
McKean and Mrs. Jennie Campbell. Lieutenant
McKendry describes him as " late of Tunadilla,"
and says he performed another marriage ceremony
in September at which the guests " drank seven
gallons of wine." On the arrival of Colonel Alden's
regiment he had been made chaplain.
Another who escaped was Mr. Dunlop, who owed
his life to Little Aaron, one of the chiefs of the Ogh-
waga Mohawks.* But Mr. Dunlop's wife perished
in the storm. In Cherry Valley is still preserved an
ancient clock made in Kilmarnock, Scotland, that
escaped the fire which burned the Campbell home.
It was originally brought into the country by the
pioneer Campbell, and was saved from the fire by a
boy who concealed it in an orchard near the house.
Here in Cherry Valley now dwelt the Ogdens of
Otego. When the alarm came, Mrs. Ogden with
her children fled to the woods, carrying a blanket
* Campbell describes the incident as follows : "Little Aaron led him
out from the house tottering with age, and stood beside him to protect
him. An Indian passing by pulled his hat from his head and ran away
with it ; the Chief pursued him and regained it. On his return another
Indian had carried away Mr. Dunlop's wig ; the rain was falling upon
his bare head, while his whole system shook like an aspen under the con-
tinued influences of age, fear, and cold. He died about a year after ; his
death was hastened by his misfortunes."
244
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
with which to cover them. She finally made her
way in safety to the Mohawk, where her husband,
some days later, joined them. The Ogdens had
been well known to Brant before the war. As we
have seen, Brant had often been down the Susque-
hanna in his canoe on expeditions of war and sur-
veying and was familiar with the Otego home of
the Ogdens. The father had become famous as
a hunter of beaver and a scout.
Besides the older part of the present cemetery,
the Cherry Valley fort included the adjacent street
and some of the land across it. It was large enough
to contain all the inhabitants of the place, though
hardly with comfort. Colonel Alden has been blamed
for not admitting them after the news of November
9th, and has been partially excused on the ground
that he was ignorant of Indian methods in war. The
passages already given from Warren's Diary hardly
justify exclusive criticism of Alden. General Hand's
visit to Cherry Valley a few days before the attack
(he was there as late as November 8th), and the un-
fulfilled promises of reinforcements on November
9th, complicate the problem of official responsibil-
ity. For Colonel Klock's failure to reach Cherry
Valley before the massacre no excuse seems pos-
sible. The distance was only twenty miles and the
road was old and well travelled. When at last he
did arrive, his orders from General Hand were to
pursue the enemy " if he found it practicable." But
it appears that " for want of provisions and ammu-
nition," and in the belief that " the enemy had
gone too far to be overtaken," he then gave up all
thought of pursuit and proceeded to disband his
regiment.*
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
245
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Captain William Harper seems to have voiced
the sentiments of the inhabitants when he wrote to
Governor Clinton on December 2d that Klock
had come to Cherry Valley, " warmed himself,
turned about, marched back without affording the
distressed inhabitants the least assistance or release,
even to bury the dead, or to collect the small re-
mains of their cattle or goods." Captain Harper in
another letter to Governor Clinton, of February 16th
following, declared that Klock had promised Hand
that he would send 400 men " some days before
the enemy arrived." When finally he came, he
" did not stay above two or three hours, notwith-
standing the enemy had not retired above six or
seven miles from the settlement." Captain Har-
per made similar references to Colonel Fisher, who
arrived the same day as Klock. After the manner
of Klock, Fisher refused either to stay or to assist
in burying the dead, or otherwise to relieve the
distress of the inhabitants.
General Hand, who had left matters entirely in
charge of these shrinking militia colonels, was back
in Albany before the massacre occurred. It is
quite clear that he failed to take the situation se-
riously. At any rate, he was not clear-sighted in
his judgment as to its gravity ; nor was he vigorous
in action for giving relief. He shared this neglect,
however, with many other men with whose com-
mands had gone an obligation to protect the fron-
tier.
Within the fort Colonel Alden's body was buried
with military honors, including the firing of three
volleys over his grave. A stone still marks this
burial-place, to which devout pilgrimages have been
made for more than 100 years. Adjoining this
246
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
grave in 1825 was buried the wife of Colonel Clyde,
and in the digging of the grave Alden's remains
were exposed. " I saw and examined his skull,"
says Levi Beardsley, " which was sound as when
first buried. The tomahawk with which he was
struck after being shot, had not cut through to the
brain, but seemed to have glanced off, chipping
away a portion of the skull. The cavity was dis-
colored with blood and several lines or marks where
the tomahawk had entered were red and bright.
Alvin Stewart took away one of the teeth."
Had the methods of Brant prevailed in this
attack, less bloodshed would have occurred. His
methods were of an honorable kind, warfare by him
having never been attended by downright massacre,
but by the taking of prisoners, cattle, and provi-
sions, and the burning of houses and barns. Camp,
bell narrates incidents showing his humanity at
Cherry Valley. The most barbarous part of the
work was done by Tories and the Senecas. The
Tories incited the Indians to barbarities to which
by nature they were inclined, while the Senecas
were led by Hiokatoo, a chief whose unparalleled
cruelties to his enemies have been admitted by his
own wife, Mary Jemison. She lived with him for
nearly half a century. He was a fierce and cruel
savage who butchered infants, but she says that, al-
though war was his trade from youth till old age
and decrepitude unfitted him for it, he " uniformly
treated me with tenderness and never offered an
insult." Hiokatoo had been at Braddock's defeat,
where, having taken two prisoners, he burned them
alive.
Brant eagerly inquired at Cherry Valley for Cap-
tain McKean, saying he had come to accept his
247
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
challenge. He characterized McKean as " a fine
soldier thus to retreat," and he " would have given
more to take him than any other man in Cherry-
Valley, but would not have hurt a hair of his head."
Brant, after the war, maintained that he had never
killed but one man unfairly, and in that case his act
was due to a misapprehension. He had questioned
the man, who was a prisoner, and finding him ob-
stinate and apparently untruthful, killed him on the
spot. Lying, it should be remembered, was an
offence for which the Iroquois inflicted the punish-
ment of death. Brant was sincerely affected after-
ward when he learned that the man's conduct was
due to an impediment in his speech.
Of Brant's humanity in the Border Wars many
stories have been related. He was a Mason and at
Minisink saved the life of a prisoner who gave him
the sign of distress. On another occasion he saved
a Mason who had already been bound to the stake
and around whom the fagots had been piled. Still
another case is that of Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan
Maynard. While stationed at West Point with
Colonel Alden's regiment, Maynard had been sent
out on a scouting expedition and was captured by
Indians. His companions were bound to trees
and burned to death, but Maynard having a sword
was thought to be a prize for whom a ransom could
be obtained, and accordingly was taken to Unadilla.
He there gave to Brant the sign of distress and was
ordered set free.* Another example relates to one
of Brant's later campaigns in the Mohawk Valley.
One day an Indian entered General Van Rensse-
laer's head-quarters, with an infant in his arms, and
* Brant MSS. in the Draper Collection.
248
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
bearing a message from Brant, containing these
words :
I send you by one of my runners the child which he will
deliver that you may know that whatever others may do I
do not make war upon women and children. I am sorry
to say that I have those engaged with me in the service
who are more savage than the savages themselves.
The literature of the Border Wars will be searched
in vain for a defence of the conduct of Walter But-
ler * at Cherry Valley, or of his father, John But-
ler, at Wyoming. Brant included Walter among
those who were " more savage than the savages
themselves." But it is proper to permit him to
speak for himself when no one speaks for him.
Butler wrote to General Clinton in February, 1779 :
We deny any cruelties to have been committed at Wy-
oming, either by whites or by Indians ; so far to the con-
trary-, that not a man, woman, or child was hurt after the
capitulation, or a woman or child before it, and none taken
into captivity. Though should you call it deep inhuman-
ity, the killing men in arms in the field we in that case
plead guilty. The inhabitants killed at Cherry Valley do
not lie at my door.
These statements are so at variance with well-
authenticated facts that perhaps the charitable judg-
ment to be passed on Butler is that he was not re-
sponsible either for his acts or his words.
Colonel Alden's regiment, or some portion of
it, was stationed at Cherry Valley for the winter.
* Perhaps the truest estimate of Butler may be formed after reading
Harold Frederic's In the Valley, a story of life on the frontier dur-
ing the Border Wars, the original inspiration for which was derived
from Horatio Seymour. In the Valley came straight from its author's
heart.
249
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
McKendry, who remained with it, says that on Janu-
ary 1 8th he went to Newtown Martin and " bought
two stacks of hay from James Bradshaw." Camp-
bell describes the place as one of utter desolation.
Cocks crowed from the tops of forest trees, and
dogs howled through the abandoned fields.
In departing from the scene of their terrible re-
venge the invaders proceeded directly down Cherry
Valley Creek, and during the first night slept out in
the open air about two miles on their way. During
the following day, the feeble Mrs. Cannon, one of
the prisoners, was put to death. A contemporary
newspaper account says Colonel Stacey and others of
the Continental regiment " were stripped and driven
naked before them." Besides the prisoners, the
Indians had with them all the horses, cattle, and
sheep of the settlement. Except Mrs. Campbell and
her children, and Mrs. Moore and children, all the
prisoners were eventually sent back to Cherry Valley,
and the most of them from the first camping place.
Some of the Senecas invaded Sleeper's Mills and
carried away everything they cared to possess except
some money which Mrs. Sleeper adroitly concealed
among old rags. Mr. Sleeper was away from home
at the time, and his wife and ten children were ren-
dered almost destitute. When Brant reached the
place he said to Mrs. Sleeper, whose family were
well known to him : " My God, are you alive ? I
expected to find all killed. Those Senecas I can't
control. They would kill their friends for the sake
of plunder. They would have killed many more
in Cherry Valley if it had not been for me." He
offered to pay her for the losses she had met with,
but she declined to receive his money, on the ground
that it had been taken from other settlers.
250
THE CHERRY VALLEY MASSACRE
Brant and his companions remained in the upper
valley for two weeks or more after the massacre.
Among their prisoners was a man named Vrooman,
whom Brant had formerly known. Wishing to assist
Vrooman to escape, he sent him up the river on a
pretence that he wanted him to get some birch bark.
The man had the honesty, or stupidity, to return
with the bark, much to the disgust of Brant, who
was now under the necessity of taking him on the
journey. At the mouth of the Charlotte, rafts and
canoes were secured, and in them the remainder of
the journey was made to Tioga Point, whence the
whole company proceeded rapidly to Kanadesaga
and thence to Niagara.
Soon after the party reached Kanadesaga, the
Indians celebrated their victory in truly savage
manner. The facts for an account of it have come
down to us from Mrs. Campbell, who was a terrified
witness of the scene. After a grand council, the
warriors gathered around a great fire in the little
park in the centre of the village, each with his face
and parts of his body painted in black and white to
a hideous extent. Songs were sung in praise of their
exploits and those of their ancestors, " by degrees,"
says Stone, " working themselves up into a tempest
of passion ; whooping, yelling, and uttering every
hideous cry ; brandishing their knives and war
clubs and throwing themselves into the most mena-
cious attitudes in a manner terrific to the unprac-
tised beholders." Meanwhile the prisoners were
paraded, the scalps borne in triumph, and for every
scalp was uttered the scalp yell, or death halloo,
" the most terrific note which an Indian could
raise." The festival closed with the killing of a
white dog, the burning of the entrails, the roasting
251
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
of the carcass, and the eating of the same. In this
manner was celebrated near the site of Geneva the
most bloody occurrence in the annals of Otsego
County.
Mrs. Campbell, while in captivity at Kanadesaga,
was one day asked by an Indian why she wore a cap.
She replied that it was a custom among the white
people. " Come into my house," said he, " and I
will give you a cap." She followed him, and after
taking a cap from behind one of the beams, he re-
marked : " I got that cap in Cherry Valley. I took
it from the head of a woman." Mrs. Campbell at
once recognized it as having belonged to Jane Wells.
It was still spotted with blood and showed the cut
made by the tomahawk. Before her, therefore,
stood the murderer of a friend whom she had known
from infancy. Mrs. Campbell's grandson tells this
story in his " Annals of Tryon County."
252
PART VI
The Sullivan Expedition
1779
General Clinton at
Otsego Lake
1779
THESE events created a profound impres-
sion, accustomed though the country was to
the worst scenes and calamities of war.
General Gates's share in the responsibilities has
already been indicated. It is made impressively
clear in the Clinton correspondence.* After many
appeals and warnings, Gates finally had written to
General Stark on April 17, 1778, that "in case of
any sudden irruption of the enemy," Stark was em-
powered to call upon such militiamen, " as will en-
able you to repel every hostile invasion " — directions
which make all too evident Gates's failure to un-
derstand the methods that Indians employed in
warfare. Such military action would, indeed, have
been merely to lock the door after the horse had
been stolen. What the frontier needed was men to
guard it against attack, not men to be sent to its
defence after destruction had been done and the
enemy had taken to the woods.
James Duane had warned Congress early in 1778
that an irruption would occur. His letter at the
time was duly transmitted to Gates, but Duane, on
June 6th, complained bitterly to Governor Clin-
ton that " to the misfortune of the country it has
* Vol. iii., passim.
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
not been attended to." Two weeks later Governor
Clinton complained that Gates had required of him
a large proportion of the militia to reinforce the
army under his command. But Clinton had disre-
garded the order to the extent of sending one bri-
gade to the frontier in spite of Gates. On August
ioth he wrote to Duane that it was " to be regretted
that the operations which were intended by Con-
gress against the Indians have been hitherto so
utterly neglected by the commanding officer of the
Northern Department."
Some responsibility lies at the door of General
Stark. When Colonel William Butler proposed to
Stark the plan he had made for an expedition to
Unadilla, Stark did not favor it, although it had
received Governor Clinton's approval. Governor
Clinton wrote that he was " more than ever con-
vinced that offensive operations against the savages
and Tories are absolutely necessary," and regretted
" that the plan had not already been carried into ex-
ecution, especially as (if I know the man) it must
have been much better than any he can devise." On
October 12th, when complaints continued to pour
in from the frontier, the Governor wrote to Colonel
Klock that, upon the first appearance of hostilities,
he had applied to Washington for Continental
troops and had secured two regiments. Moreover,
he had ordered that one-fourth of the militia be
stationed on the frontier. If these troops had been
improperly placed, so that they failed to give the
protection needed, it was " the fault of the com-
manding officer at Albany, and not in my power to
correct."
A month before this the Governor had written to
Washington complaining of Stark. He had re-
256
CLINTON AT OTSEGO LAKE
ceived two letters from Stark, " neither of any con-
sequence." From these and from "common re-
ports of the inhabitants," supported by complaints
from a civil officer of the State, Clinton could only
conclude that Stark had " paid a greater share of
attention to the support and encouragement of the
disaffected subject of this State on the Grants * in es-
tablishing their usurped government than to the de-
fence of the Western frontier and protection of its
inhabitants." Hand had afterward succeeded Stark,
but he likewise had failed to provide any real defence.
The protection of the frontier was now to be con-
fided to other men than Gates or Stark or Hand. It
was decided that the general government must strike
a blow that would crush out completely the warlike
spirit on the frontier. But how terribly had the
frontier suffered in order to teach that lesson, and
what warnings had not been given ? While this cor-
respondence had been going on, the battle of Cobles-
kill had occurred. Springfield and German Flatts
had been burned. Wyoming and Cherry Valley had
been visited by massacre.
In the spring of 1779 an act was passed by the
Legislature providing for 1,000 men for purposes
of defence, these men to continue in service until
the following January and to be allowed the same
pay and rations as the Continental army. But the
Continental Congress, under the approval of Wash-
ington, decided to make a national campaign, and
to Washington was given the direction of it. It
was planned to consist of two divisions, one under
General Sullivan, which was to cross from Easton
* What were known as the New Hampshire Grants, concerning which
for many years there has been much bitter contest between New York
and the Green Mountain boys, now temporarily in suspense owing to the
war with England.
257
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to the Susquehanna, and thence ascend the river to
Tioga Point, while the other, under General James
Clinton, now in command at Albany and a brother
of the Governor, was to proceed up the Mohawk to
Canajoharie, crossing to Otsego Lake, and going
thence down the Susquehanna to Tioga Point,
where the two expeditions were to unite in a com-
bined attack on the Indian settlements in Western
New York.
Of the men raised by New York, only 150 were
added to General Clinton's force, which in all com-
prised about 1,800 men,* with three months' pro-
visions and 220 boats. f From Albany General
Clinton gave orders that the boats should meet him
at Schenectady and that 300 or 400 horses should
be ready at Canajoharie " to transport the boats and
stores across the carrying place to Lake Otsego, the
place of embarkation." On arrival at Canajoharie
the brigade went into camp. Here were tried by
court-martial as spies Lieutenant Henry Hare and
Sergeant Newberry, who were convicted and hanged.
They had wives and children who begged for their
* Some of the journals of the expedition say 1,500 men, some 1,800,
and some 2,000.
t The brigade was composed of detachments from the Third New
York regiment, of which Peter Gansevoort was colonel, Marinus Willett,
lieutenant-colonel, and Leonard Bleecker one of the captains ; the Fourth
New York, of which Frederick Weissenfels was lieutenant-colonel, and
Rudolphus van Hovenburg one of the lieutenants ; the Fifth New York,
of which Lewis Dubois was colonel ; the Fourth Pennsylvania, of which
William Butler was lieutenant-colonel, Erkuries Beatty a lieutenant,
and William Gray one of the captains ; the Sixth Massachusetts (Colo-
nel Alden's), of which Daniel Whiting was the major commanding,
William McKendry a lieutenant, and Benjamin Warren a captain ; one
or two companies of artillery, of which Thomas Machin was captain, and
a volunteer corps under Colonel John Harper. Machin was employed
during the war as an engineer in the construction of the historic chain
that was stretched across the Hudson to prevent the British from ascend-
ing the stream beyond West Point. He afterward coined money for
the several States in a workshop five miles back of Newburg.
258
CLINTON AT OTSEGO LAKE
lives in vain. Newberry had been an " active par-
ticipant in the massacre of Cherry Valley," where,
with a hatchet, he had killed a child ten or twelve
years old. When the Erie Canal was built, nearly
fifty years later, his bones and those of a man
named Titus, who had been shot as a deserter, were
thrown out by the workmen.
On June 17th Major Whiting, at Cherry Valley,
received orders to proceed to Otsego Lake with the
regiment of the late Colonel Alden. He set out on
the following day, encamping that night in Spring-
field. Here, says McKendry, Whiting " ordered a
fatiguing party on to mend the roads toward the
lake," and on the following day the regiment itself
marched to the lake. Of Clinton's coming from
Canajoharie, Lieutenant Van Hovenburg, in his
journal, says that on June 16th his regiment, then
at Canajoharie, " marched about five miles on the
Cherry Valley road and encamped there that night."
On the following day they marched four miles, and
on the 19th "escorted stores to Springfield," while
the rifle corps went to escort the stores to Lake
Otsego. On the 24th McKendry says " boats and
provisions arrive at this lake very fast, 500 wagons
going very steady." *
* It is obvious from these contemporary records that General Clinton
did not open any new road from the Mohawk to Lake Otsego, as several
writers have said, among them Cooper, Campbell, and Gould. "After
ascending the Mohawk as far as Fort Plain," says Cooper, "the brigade
cut a road through the forest to the head of Lake Otsego, whither it trans-
ported its boats." Campbell described the road as constructed "from
Canajoharie to the head of Otsego Lake, distant twenty miles," and says
its opening was " effected with great labor." Gould followed these state-
ments. The obvious fact is that General Clinton employed the old road
to Cherry Valley from the Mohawk and other roads near the lake con-
structed many years before the war. The one still known as the Conti-
nental road, and leading to the lake near the mouth of Shadow Brook
in Hyde Bay, was doubtless among those which were mended by the
fatiguing party sent out by Major Whiting.
259
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
While the brigade lay at the head of the lake,
David Elerson, of Colonel Butler's regiment, met
with a thrilling adventure described by Stone. He
wandered off one day to an old clearing a few miles
distant, when suddenly ten or twelve Indians ap-
peared and sought to take him captive. As he
fled, tomahawks were hurled after him, one of them
wounding his arm. For hours he was pursued
through the forest ; once he was wounded and once
he killed an Indian. Finally he hid himself in the
hollow trunk of a hemlock-tree, and spent two days
there without food. On emerging he found that
he had lost the points of the compass, but he took
what seemed the most promising course, to find
himself at last in Cobleskill, distant twenty-five
miles from the lake.
At the outlet of the lake General Clinton met with
a serious obstacle to his progress. The river was
too shallow and narrow to permit the boats to pass
out, and for some distance down was filled with
flood-wood and fallen trees. As soon as the regi-
ment from Cherry Valley had reached Hyde Bay,
"a party of men," says McKendry, writing on
June a i st, "was ordered by Colonel Butler to the
foot of the lake to dam the same, that the water
might be raised to carry the boats down the Susque-
hanna River. Captain Warren commanded the
party." By this dam the surface of the lake was
raised about three feet, according to one account,
about one foot, according to another, and " at least
two," according to General Clinton. Some of the
logs used in building the dam were still in their
places fifty years later. Simms records certain tra-
ditions of the country that, in order further to in-
crease the flow of water, a party was sent to open a
260
CLINTON AT OTSEGO LAKE
beaver dam which held the waters of Schuyler's
Lake. " This invasion of private property under a
plea of public necessity," remarks Hough in his
notes to Bleeker's book, " was resented by the
beavers, who, as soon as the party had gone, set
themselves at work to repair the dam in the night,
and before morning had restored it complete."
After that experience a guard was " stationed to pro-
tect the point against further molestation."
The entire brigade had reached the site of Coo-
perstown by July 5th. One regiment went over-
land by way of Cherry Valley, the others all by
water. Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty,* in his journal,
says a part of the expedition encamped " on the site
of Croghan's house " and " found a very fine chest
containing carpenter's tools, books, papers, etc., con-
cealed in a thicket, and covered with bark," which
was supposed to be the property ofCroghan, "who
formerly lived here, but is gone to the enemy."
General Clinton himself arrived on July 2d, when
he was glad to inform the Governor that he believed
such a quantity of stores and baggage " had never
before been transported over so bad a road in so
short a time and with less accidents."
The brigade remained here until August 8th, a
period of four weeks, awaiting orders from General
Sullivan. On July 4th the third anniversary of
Independence was celebrated, the General "being
pleased to order that all troops under his command
should draw a gill of rum per man, extraordinary, in
memory of that happy event." The Rev. John
* Beatty, or Beattie, had taken part in the battles of Long Island,
Germantown, and Monmouth, and was at Valley Forge and the sur-
render of Cornwallis. His father was a clergyman, who got the singular
name Erkuries from the Greek, in which tongue it signifies "from the
Lord."
26l
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Gano, a Baptist clergyman from New York City,
the chaplain of the brigade, preached from the text,
" This day shall be a memorial unto you through-
out your generation." Three men were put on
trial for desertion, convicted, and sentenced to be
shot. Two of them were afterward pardoned, but
the third, Anthony Dunnavan, who had previously
deserted from the British army, and had advised the
two other men, both younger than he, to desert with
him from General Clinton's brigade, was shot at a
place on the west side of the outlet near the lake.
General Clinton said his conduct sufficiently showed
that he was " unfit to serve either his king or his
country." On the arrival of James Deane,* on July
5th, with thirty-five friendly Oneidas, who came
to " apologize for the absence of their brethren,"
due to a threatened invasion of their country from
Canada, the General requested the soldiers to be
careful " not to insult the Indians who are in camp,
nor crowd about them." On July 29th great joy
prevailed on receipt of news that Anthony Wayne
had made his successful assault on Stony Point.
* So printed in The Order Book of Captain Bleeker, but apparently an
error for James Duane, the Indian commissioner.
262
II
Brant's Return and the
Battle of Minisink
1779
BEFORE narrating the journey of General
Clinton from Otsego Lake to Tioga Point, it
is necessary to revert to the doings of Brant
and the Indians during the spring and early summer
of the same year. At Niagara, before the winter
ended, Brant had in vain sought to win over the
Oneidas and Tuscaroras for a descent upon the
Mohawk Valley. In February some Oneidas
brought news to Tryon County of his projected ex-
pedition, the main part of which Brant was himself
to lead to the Mohawk, while another part was to
go down the Unadilla River and proceed thence to
the Schoharie settlements. Governor Clinton wrote
to the New York delegates in Congress of his help-
less condition, and expressing fears lest the Hudson
River " become our western boundary."
General Clinton, then in command at Albany,
determined to send Colonel Van Schaick to Fort
Schuyler at once, and thence westward to Onondaga.
With 558 men Van Schaick set out on April 17th,
and wrought great destruction at the Council House.
Proceeding westward by way of Oneida Lake, he
descended upon the Indian villages lying south of
it. "We took thirty-eight Indians and one white
prisoner," says Captain Machin, in his journal, " and
killed twelve Indians. The whole of their settlement,
163
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
consisting of about fifty houses, with a quantity of
corn and every other kind of stock, was destroyed,"
while about ioo guns, some of which were rifles,
were among the plunder, " the whole of which, after
the men had loaded with as much as they could
carry, was destroyed, with a considerable quantity of
ammunition." Many Indians escaped " by a pre-
cipitate flight through the woods." Not a man in
the command was killed or wounded.
While this expedition was in the Onondaga
country, parties of Indians were making attacks on
the frontier. Near the middle of April a band of
forty descended upon Lackawaxen and burned the
settlement, besides other houses in that part of the
Delaware Valley. Meanwhile sixty Indians ap-
peared on the Mohawk ; one party captured two
prisoners in Schoharie ; another killed two persons
near Stone Arabia ; another took five scalps at Fort
Dayton, while another made two prisoners near Fort
Plank. General Clinton himself now hastened up
the valley and wrote to his brother that but for the
appearance of his troops, he believed Schenectady
" would have become the frontier of the State." *
About June ist a party of six Oghwaga Indians
reached the old settlement now called Sharon Center,
and took two prisoners to Oghwaga. Of this inci-
dent, McKendry, writing on June ist, at Cherry
Valley, says :
This day was informed, not many days agone six Indians
took two men prisoners from Turlough f (12 miles from
Fort Alden) [Cherry Valley] , carried them as far as Ocqu-
augo, where two of the Indians left the party to go on to in-
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
tAlso written Torlock and Durlagh, and afterward named Sharon
Center.
264
BRANT'S RETURN
form their brothers of their success ; when the four that
were left got asleep, the two prisoners took their hatchets
and killed two of the Indians; the other two awoke, and
started ; the white men, being too many for them, wounded
them both and the two Indians fled. The two late prison-
ers took the Indians' arms of the dead and those that had
fled with only their lives, and made their escape. The
Indians soon were alarmed in that quarter, and came to the
ground, set the woods all on fire, so that they might dis-
cover their tracks, that had made their escape, but to no
purpose ; the two late English prisoners escaped clear. I
have had the pleasure since to see the man that killed the
two Indians. It was Mr. Sawyer.
On June 1 8th news was received that 450 reg-
ular troops, 100 Tories, and 30 Indians had been
sent from Montreal to reinforce those Indians, al-
ready in the country, against whom the Sullivan
expedition had been sent. They had collected at
Buck, or Carleton, Island, near the western end of the
St. Lawrence, where they had four large lake vessels,
and two others were ready for launching.* On
June 25th it was learned that a force of 300 Ind-
ians and a few Tories, under Brant, had left Cayuga
for the Susquehanna, where they intended to hang
about General Clinton's line of march, and harass
his movements down to Tioga Point, near which, at
Newtown, they intended to make a stand.
Thus, with the opening of the summer, Brant at
Oghwaga, or Unadilla, was awaiting the coming of
General Clinton from the lake. He found the val-
ley a difficult place to live in, after the destruction
done by Colonel Butler in the previous autumn, and
it became necessary to penetrate to more prosper-
ous settlements in order to find food. The most
* Clinton Papers, vol. iv.
265
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
important of his doings was the invasion of Mini-
sink, * which the departure of Count Pulaski for
South Carolina, in the previous February, had left
wholly unprotected. After waiting a month for
General Clinton to move, he set out from Oghwaga
by way of the trail to Cookoze and thence followed
the Delaware down to the ancient settlement in
the Neversink Valley below Port Jervis. He had
with him sixty Indians, and twenty-seven Tories
disguised as Indians. Surprising the settlement,
he burned ten houses and twelve barns, besides
two mills and a fort ; drove away the cattle, took
other booty, killed four men, and captured three
prisoners. Brant's letter to Colonel Bolton, f writ-
ten from Oghwaga on July 29th, after his return, de-
scribes as follows the work he did at the settlement :
I beg leave to acquaint you that I arrived here last night
from Minisink, and was a good deal disappointed that I could
not get into that place at the time I wished to do — a little be-
fore day ; instead of which I did not arrive till noon, when
all the cattle was in the woods, so that we could get but
a few of them. We have burned all the settlement called
Minisink, one fort excepted, round which we lay before
about an hour, and had one man killed aad one wounded.
We destroyed several small stockaded forts, and took four
scalps and three prisoners, but did not in the least injure
women or children. The reason that we could not take
* Dr. Beauchamp gives the translation, Land from which the Water
Has Gone ; but suggests that it may be fanciful. Stone describes it as
one of the most ancient of inland American towns. As early as July 22,
1669, It had had troubles with Indians, having then suffered a visitation
" the bloody horrors of which yet live in the traditions of the neighbor-
hood."
t Bolton was the British commander at Fort Niagara. In October,
1780, he sailed from that place in a. new vessel called the Ontario.
About midnight, in a violent storm, when near one of the islands at the
entrance to the St. Lawrence, the ship was wrecked. Every soul on
board, including Bolton, and numbering about 120, was lost.
266
BATTLE OF MINISINK
more of them was owing to the many forts about the
place, into which they were always ready to run like ground
hogs.*
Brant remained at Minisink over night, and at
eight o'clock on the following day, July I2d, began
his retreat up the Delaware. He had reached a
point near Lackawaxen,-j* and was preparing to cross
the stream on his way to the Susquehanna Valley,
when a body of 149 men, comprising the militia of
the Minisink region, including Goshen, overtook
him, and a memorable engagement, heretofore often
referred to as a massacre, took place. That it was
not properly a massacre, has already been pointed
out by Mr. Nanny, who based his account of the
battle on Brant's unpublished letter to Colonel
Bolton, quoted above, which proceeds to say :
I left this place [Minisink] about 8 o'clock the next
day, and marched fifteen miles. There are two roads — one
through the woods, the other alongside the river. We were
coming up this road next morning, and I sent two men to
examine the other, the only way that the rebels could
come to attack us. These men found the enemy's path
not far from our camp, and discovered that they had got
before to lay in ambush. The two rascals were afraid
when they saw the path, and did not return to inform us,
so that the rebels had fair play at us. They fired on the
front of our people when crossing the river. I was then
about four hundred yards in the rear. As soon as the firing
began, I immediately marched up a hill in their rear with
forty men, and came round on their backs. The rest of
my men were all scattered on the other side. However,
the rebels soon retreated, and I pursued them until they
* Brant's letter is among the Sparks Manuscripts at Harvard,
t For this word, Dr. Beauchamp gives the translation, Forks of the
Road.
267
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
stopped upon a rocky hill, round which we were em-
ployed, and very busy, near four hours. We have taken
forty-odd scalps and one prisoner. I suppose the enemy
have lost near half of their men and most of their officers.
They all belonged to the militia, and were about 150 in
number.
Stone, commenting on the censure of Brant which
this battle called forth, says Brant always maintained
that his conduct " had been the subject of unjust re-
proach," and makes the following statement in his
behalf:
Having obtained the supplies he needed, his own object
was accomplished. Brant also stated that on the near ap-
proach of the Americans, he rose and, presenting himself
openly and fairly to their view, addressed himself to their
commanding officer, and demanded their surrender, promis-
ing at the same time to treat them kindly as prisoners of war.
He assured them frankly that his force in ambush was suf-
ficient to overpower and destroy them ; that then, before any
blood had been shed, he could control his warriors, but
should the battle commence, he could not answer for the
consequences. But, he said, while he was thus parleying
with them, he was fired upon and narrowly escaped being
shot down, the ball piercing the outer fold of his belt. Im-
mediately upon receiving the shot he retired and secreted
himself among his warriors. The militia, emboldened by
his disappearance, seeing no other enemy, and disbelieving
what he had told them, rushed forward heedlessly until they
were completely within his power.
Both sides in this engagement fought in the Ind-
ian manner — every man for himself, from behind
rocks and trees. Among the slain were some of the
best citizens of all the Minisink region. On that
rocky hill-side, about one mile from Lackawaxen,
their bones lay for more than forty years, practically
268
BATTLE OF MINISINK
unburied. What remained of these bones were
gathered up in 1822, and, followed by 1 2,000 people,
received honorable burial in Goshen, where a monu-
ment now records their names, forty-four in number.
After the battle, thirty-three women, members of
the Presbyterian Church in Goshen, wore widows'
garments. Brant buried his dead after the battle.
Some of the bones of these Indians were uncovered
at the time of digging the Delaware and Hudson
Canal.
Brant's letter adds that on reaching Oghwaga he
learned that General Sullivan " perhaps by this time
may be at Shimong, where I have sent my party to
remain till I join them." He himself was just set-
ting out with eight men for the Mohawk River, "in
order to discover the enemies' motions." General
Clinton was still at the foot of Otsego Lake, with
ten days longer to remain. Brant proceeded up the
Unadilla River to the Mohawk, where he captured
a man named John House. House became lame
from marching, and the Indians prepared to kill him,
but Brant ordered that he be released on a promise
of neutrality. One of General Clinton's scouts
afterward found House, and the day before the de-
parture from the lake, brought him into camp.
House had particulars of the threatened invasion
from Canada by way of Buck Island. Fort Schuy-
ler was to be attacked.
Another incident of the same weeks relates to Job
Stiles, who, with a companion, made a cross-country
journey as messenger from General Sullivan to
General Clinton. Fearing to pass up the Susque-
hanna beyond the mouth of the Chenango, they
turned their course up to the forks of the Chenango,
and thence went across the wilderness to the lake.
269
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Wilkinson says they were two weeks in making this
journey, and, owing to the heavy rains, suffered
much from exposure. Each had a copy of the mes-
sage, concealed in a handkerchief, in one of his arm-
pits.
270
Ill
General Clinton's Descent of
the Susquehanna
1779
GENERAL CLINTON'S start for Tioga
Point was made on a Monday, Mr. Gano
having preached on Sunday from the text,
" Being ready to depart on the morrow." Steps for
the departure were taken on Sunday after the ser-
vices closed, when, as Mr. Gano has described the
scene, " the general rose up and ordered each cap-
tain to appoint a certain number of men out of his
company to draw the boats from the lake and
string them along the Susquehanna below the dam,
and load them that they might be ready to depart
the next morning." After the dam had been opened
several hours, the swell occasioned in the river
" served to carry the boats over the shoals and flats,
which would have been impossible otherwise."
The season had been in want of rain and " it was
therefore matter of great astonishment to the inhabi-
tants down the river for above a hundred miles what
could have occasioned such a freshet in the river."
Stone says the valley was " wild and totally unin-
habited except by scattered families of Indians, and
here and there by some few of the more adventu-
rous white settlers in the neighborhood of Unadilla."
These latter were Tories. Stone adds that the
sudden swelling of the river, the flood being large
even down to Oghwaga, " bearing upon its surge a
271
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
flotilla of more than two hundred vessels, through
a region of primitive forests and upon a stream that
had never before wafted upon its bosom any craft
of greater burden than a bark canoe,* was a spec-
tacle which might well appal the untutored inhabi-
tants of the region thus invaded." It has even been
said that this rise in the water was great enough to
cause the Chemung River at Tioga Point to reverse
its course.
Mr. Gano says the soldiers marched on both sides
of the river, except that the invalids were placed in
the boats with the baggage and provisions. The
light infantry and rifle corps under Colonel Butler
formed an advance guard, and were to proceed, says
Bleeker, as " discovering parties," and were to
govern their march " so as not to quit sight of the
front of the line of march if possible, and the woods
will permit." A guard was to follow the rear
line of the boats and, like the advance guard, was
not to quit sight of the boats " unless by unavoid-
able circumstances, as swampy roads, etc." In the
centre of the land line was to go the remainder of
the land force with all the horses and cattle, the
marching being " in two columns, or Indian files,
wherever the roads will not permit it otherwise, with
the cattle betwixt the columns." Each regiment
was to have its due proportion of boats, and in each
boat were to go three men. An elaborate system of
signals was established to meet emergencies such as
the front line going so fast that the rear boats would
be lost sight of. Full instructions were issued for
action in case an enemy appeared.
* The trader's " battoe " had been in these waters for more than fifty
years, and pioneers had traversed them in the same kind of boats for at
least ten years.
272
CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA
On August 9th the army reached Camp Demes-
ses, sixteen miles from the lake, and on August 10th
" Jochum's farm," * twenty miles by land from the
lake. From this farm the General wrote to his
brother that "the troops have advanced thus far
without the least accident, in perfect health and high
spirits." The most distressing parts of the river had
been passed, " so I expect to arrive at Anaquegha the
15th." On August nth the army was at Ogden's
farm, "36 miles from the lake," and on August
1 2th " at Unondila, 52 miles from the lake." These
distances are many miles in excess of the distances
by present roads. They gave reckonings based
apparently on the winding river's course.
On leaving camp at Ogden's farm it was ordered
that the boats be " started three abreast and the whole
at a close distance," the river by this time having be-
come broad enough to admit of doing so. Here it
was ordered that " all the troops receive one gill of
rum and each officer one quart." Another day
brought the expedition past the site of Unadilla
village and into camp on the Sidney side of the Sus-
quehanna, the river being crossed at nightfall from
the ruins of the Unadilla settlement. Lieutenant
Van Hovenburg describes as follows the first stages
of the journey :
Camp Lake Otsego, Aug. 9. The army under com-
mand of Gen. Clinton struck camp and loaded our baggage
on board the batteau and proceeded down the Susquehanna
river as far as Burris farm. The troops f marched, all ex-
cept three men to each boat; we had 250 boats and quar-
* Van Valkenburgh's.
t The Camp Demesses of Bleeker's Order Book. Elsewhere in the
journals written Burrows. Lieutenant McKendry calls the place " Mr.
Cully's farm," referring to Matthew Cully, the Cherry Valley man, who
settled there.
273
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
tered them that night and remained there the greater part of
the next day on account of the rain, which is 15 miles.
Burris Farm, Aug. 10. Decamped at about three p.m.,
and loaded our baggage and proceeded on our march about
5 miles, to Joachim Valkenburgh place and encamped there
that night — ratel snakes plenty, very good soil.
Bleeker calls this place " Camp Jachim's farm,"
and General Clinton writes " Camp Jacum's farm,"
while Lieutenant Beatty describes it as " Jorkam's,"
and Lieutenant McKendry as " Yokeum's." In
General Clinton's letter, written from this camp on
August 10th, he refers to the farm as " 20 miles by
land from Lake Otsego and five miles above the
Adenquetangay Branch," which identifies the farm
as land above Colliers. The Gray map places
" Youchem's " just north of the mouth of Schenevus
Creek. It lay on the east side of the Susquehanna:
Susquehanna river, Valkenburgh place, Aug. 11. De-
camped and loaded our baggage and proceeded on our march
as far as two miles below an Indian place called Otago which
was completed twenty miles.
Otago, Aug. 12. We decamped at about five in the
morning and proceeded on our march as far as Unedelly,
and encamped on the south side of the river, and most extra-
ordinary good land and most beautiful situation.
Unedelly, Aug. 13. We decamped in the morning early
and marched out at 5 o'clock as far as a beautiful island
called Gunna Gunta, and encamped there, which was about
1 2 miles. There were apples plenty at this place.
Beatty's account of the journey down to Oghwaga
contains the following passages:
Aug. 10. Marched at 3 o'clock and went five miles, to
Yokams, where we encamped ; the men in the boats en-
camped on the farm, which lies on the east side of the river,
and the remainder on the side opposite.
274
CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA
Wednesday, 1 1 . Marched 4 this morning, sunrise, and
proceeded on 14 miles down the river, where we encamped
on a small farm ; passed several small farms to-day with
very poor houses on them, and some none. The riflemen
in front saw fresh Indian tracks to-day in the path and found
a knife at one of their fires. To-day we crossed a large
creek called Otego and passed several old Indian encamp-
ments where they had encamped when they were going to
destroy Cherry Valley, or returning. Likewise we passed
one of their encampments yesterday — we encamped to-night
at Ogden's farm, and very bad encamping ground.
Thursday, 1 2. Proceeded down the west side of the river
as usual; 12 miles came to a small Scotch settlement called
Albout * on the other side of the river, five miles from Una-
dilla, which we burnt ; but the people had gone to the enemy
this last spring; went on to Unadilla; crossed the river to the
east side and encamped ; the river was at middle deep where
we waded it. The settlement was destroyed by our detach-
ment last fall, excepting one house which belonged to one
Glasford, who went to the enemy this spring. His house
was immediately burnt, when we came to the ground to-day.
We passed several old Indian encampments where they en-
camped when they destroyed Cherry Valley ; the road mid-
dling hilly.
Friday, 13. This morning very foggy and a great deal of
dew. Marched at 6 o'clock ; went 2 miles, wading the
river at three feet deep ; proceeded on to Conehunto, a
small Indian town that was, but was destroyed bv our de-
tachment last fall. It is fourteen miles from Unadilla. A
little below this town there are three or four islands f in the
river where the Indians raised their corn ; on one of these
islands our troops encamped with the boats and cattle. The
light infantry went two miles from Conehunto, where they
encamped a little after three o'clock, in the woods. Mid-
dle good road to-day.
* The settlement at the mouth of the Ouleout.
t One of these islands is the Stowell, or Chamberlain, Island of later
times, near Afton.
°~1S
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Saturday 14. Marched this morning at 8 o'clock; very
hilly road for the right flank ; arrived at the ford two miles
from Oghwaga about 2 o'clock, which is eight miles from
where we started. The ford being too deep to wade, crossed
in our boats to the east side ; went over a high hill * and
got to Oghwaga at three o'clock, when we encamped on
very pretty ground. This town was one of the neatest of
the Indians living on the Susquehanna. It was built on the
east side of the river, with good log houses, with stone chim-
neys and glass windows. It likewise had a church and bury-
ing ground and a great number of apple trees, and we likewise
saw the ruins of an old fort, which formerly was here for
many years.
Of Oghwaga, McKendry says : " It lay pleasantly
situated on both sides of the river and on an island in
the centre of the ruins of about 60 houses, which
appear by the cellars and walls that it was a fine set-
tlement before it was destroyed, considering that they
were Indians. One English family lived with them."
Beyond Oghwaga several Indian towns were de-
stroyed before a junction with Sullivan was made at
Tioga Point — Ingaren having five or six houses, a
tannery, fields of corn and potatoes ; Shawhiangto,
with ten or twelve houses ; Otseningo, with twenty
houses ; Chenang, and Owego, with several, and
Choconut f with fifty.
From Tioga Point General Sullivan sent forward
1,000 men to meet General Clinton's force, of
whose approach word had reached him. The meet-
ing of the two armies took place at Union, and
hence the name. General Clinton's arrival at Tioga
Point was celebrated with salvos of artillery, much
* Still known as Oghwaga Hill. Opposite this eminence lies the vil-
lage of Ouaquaga, in the town of Colesville.
t Place of Tamaracks was the meaning Cusick gave to Dr. Beau-
champ.
276
CLINTON ON THE SUSQUEHANNA
music and cheers. Especially welcome was a large
store of provisions which he brought with him.
When Washington, then at Newburg, learned that
Clinton had departed for Otsego Lake, he became
anxious lest the delay involved in transporting his
provisions should enable the Indians to rally all
their strength and successfully oppose him. Wash-
ington had understood that Clinton would take
such supplies only as would be needed for a rapid
march. But the event proved how fortunate had
been General Clinton's action. General Sullivan
was delayed in reaching Wyoming and had written
to General Clinton that " the commissaries have
deceived us in every article." In case Clinton were
depending upon him " we must all starve together."
277
IV
Iroquois Civilization
Overturned
1779
NOW was to follow that campaign of ruthless
destruction in Western and Central New
York which has been likened to Sherman's
march to the sea, although in the difficulties pre-
sented in the country which Sullivan traversed there
was a great contrast rather than a parallel. From
Tioga Point the combined force, numbering about
3,200 men, moved along the north bank of the
Chemung River, reaching the old Indian town of
Chemung * on August 27th.
Brant meanwhile had retreated from the Mohawk
in time to join the main body of the Indians andTo-
ries and become a leader at the approaching battle of
Newtown, where, before he arrived, the Indians and
Tories, with whom were Colonel John Butler, Sir
John Johnson, Walter Butler, and Captain McDon-
ald, had thrown up embankments more than half a
mile long, with the pits carefully concealed by newly
cut trees. On August 1 9th, the day Clinton reached
Owego, Brant wrote the following letter from " Shi-
mong," little conscious that, in the Newtown fight,
and the events that followed, the People of the Long
House would meet such overwhelming disaster:
I am deeply afflicted. John Tayojaronsere, my trusty
chief, is dead. He died eight days after he was wounded.
* The meaning of this word is Big Horn.
278
INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE
Five met the same fate. I am very much troubled by the
event, because he was of so much assistance to me. I de-
stroyed Onawatoge a few days afterward. We were carry-
ing off two prisoners. We were overtaken and 1 was
wounded in the foot with buck shot, but it is of small con-
sequence. I am almost well.
We are in daily expectation of a battle which we think
will be a severe one. We expect to number about 700
to-day. We do not quite know the number of the Bos-
tonians already stationed about eight miles from here. We
think there are 2,000 beside those at Otsego, represented to
consist of two regiments. This is why there will be a battle
either to-morrow or the day after. Then we shall begin to
know what is to become of the People of the Long House.
Our minds have not changed. We are determined to
fight the Bostonians. Of course their intention is to ex-
terminate the People of the Long House. The seven na-
tions will continue to kill and devastate the whole length of
the river we formerly resided on. I greet your wife. I hope
she is still well and that you yourself may also be well.*
On August 29th was fought the battle of New-
town on a hillside overlooking the river near which
on fertile bottom lands were growing from 150 to
200 acres of corn, now almost ready to be gathered.
With the enemy waiting behind their embankments,
fire was opened by Sullivan's artillery — six three-
pounders and two Howitzers, carrying five-and-a-
half-inch shells — a form of warfare especially terrible
to an Indian, for whom the noise of cannon had ex-
ceptional horrors. Of Brant's conduct on this field
much in laudation has been written, and perhaps
nothing finer than the following by Mr. Craft :
Such was the commanding presence of the great Ind-
ian captain and such the degree of confidence he inspired
* Addressed to Colonel Daniel Claus. The original is in the Draper
collection of Brant Manuscripts.
279
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
that his undisciplined warriors stood their ground like vet-
erans for more than half an hour as the shot went crashing
through the tree tops or ploughing up the earth under their
feet and shells went screeching over their heads or bursting
in their ranks, while high above the roar of the artillery and
the rattle of small arms could be heard the voice of Brant,
encouraging his men for the conflict, and over the heads of
all his crested plume could be seen waving where the con-
test was likely to be most sharp.
For several hours this battle in the primeval for-
est lasted, the Indians fighting from behind rocks,
bushes, and trees, their yells and warwhoops drowned
by the noise of cannon. At last they were forced
from behind their fortifications, but, under Brant's
skilful leadership, they made a hasty retreat, and
were saved from destruction. His men " darted
from tree to tree, with the agility of panthers," and
at a fording-place up the river, crossed to the other
side with such haste that they left behind their
packs, tomahawks, and scalping-knives. Pursued
for two miles, they lost eight men, killed. The
bodies of fourteen others were afterward found
partly buried. Their total loss included eleven
more. The Americans lost five or six men, and had
forty or fifty wounded.
Among the Indian towns which the expedition
now entered and laid in ruins, were these : Two
miles above Newtown, one with eight houses ; far-
ther on, Kanawaholla * with twenty ; Catharinetown
with thirty or forty good houses, fine cornfields,
horses, cows, hogs, etc. ; Kendaia with twenty houses
of hewn logs, some of them painted, peach-trees and
an apple orchard of sixty trees ; Kanadesaga f with
* Head on a Pole, is the meaning Dr. Beauchamp gives.
f New Settlement is the accepted meaning.
280
INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE
fifty houses, and thirty others near it, orchards and
cornfields, the village being built around a square in
which trees were growing ; Skoiyase * with eighteen
houses, fields of corn and trees well laden with apples,
this town being destroyed by detachments under
Colonel John Harper ; Shenanwaga with twenty
houses, orchards, cornfields fenced in, stacks of hay,
hogs, and fowls ; Kanandaigua f with twenty-three
" elegant houses, some framed, others log, but large
and new " ; Honeoye with twenty houses ; Kanagh-
saws with eighteen houses ; Gathtsewarohare with
twenty-five houses, mostly new, and cornfield which
it took 2,000 men six hours to destroy ; Little
Beard's Town, the great Seneca Castle, having 1 2 8
houses, mostly " large and elegant, surrounded by
about 200 acres of growing corn as well as by gar-
dens in which all kinds of vegetables were growing,
from 15,000 to 20,000 bushels of corn being burned
with the buildings," and finally six or seven villages
along the shores of Cayuga Lake, destroyed by a
detachment under Colonel William Butler.
One of these Cayuga towns was Chonobote where
were found peach-trees numbering 1,500, all of which
were cut down. At Kanadesaga, besides apple and
peach trees, there were mulberry-trees, and the grow-
ing vegetables were onions, peas, beans, squashes,
potatoes, turnips, cabbages, cucumbers, watermelons,
carrots, and parsnips. General Clinton describes
the corn as " the finest I have ever seen." One of
the officers saw ears twenty inches long. Under the
white man, fifteen years later, this Genesee country
was to acquire new and lasting fame for extraordi-
nary fertility.
* The word means Long Falls or Rapids in the River.
t Means Place Chosen for a Settlement.
28l
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Thus was all that garden land laid waste. " Corn,
gathered and ungathered, to the amount of 160,000
bushels," says Stone, " shared the same fate ; their
fruit-trees were cut down, and the Indians were hunt-
ed like wild beasts, till neither house nor fruit-trees,
nor field of corn, nor inhabitant, remained in the
whole country." He adds, that in this expedition
more towns were laid in ashes and a broader extent
of country ruined than had ever before been the
case on this continent.
Sullivan's rigorous measures have been severely
criticised, but he had instructions from Congress to
be severe. Washington's letter declared that " the
immediate objects are the total destruction and de-
vastation of their settlements." The country was
not to be " merely overrun, but destroyed." In a
letter to Laurens in September of this year, Wash-
ington said : " The Indians, men, women and children,
are flying before him [Sullivan] to Niagara, distant
more than one hundred miles, in the utmost con-
sternation, distress, and confusion, with the Butlers,
Brant, and the others at their head."
After Newtown, Brant and Butler proceeded
westward and northward, where reinforcements^were
secured, and another attempt to check the progress
of Sullivan was determined upon. While the army
lay near Little Beard's Town, Lieutenant Thomas
Boyd with twenty-nine men, was sent out to make
a reconnoissance. They were surprised by Brant,
and fifteen of them were slain. One of these was
Boyd himself, who died after the most frightful tor-
tures had been inflicted. The full details are given
by Stone, but I must forbear to repeat them. Brant
was not responsible for this crowning atrocity. He
was temporarily absent, and it has generally been
282
INDIAN HOMES LAID WASTE
felt that Colonel John Butler is to be blamed for not
restraining the ferocity of the Indians. Among
those who escaped were Timothy Murphy, the
famous scout, and David Elerson.
When Sullivan finally departed from the country,
the Indians returned to witness the desolate state of
their ancestral homes — blackened ruins, with fields of
corn and gardens overturned. Mary Jemison says
there was not enough left to keep a child. Home-
less now, in their own land, the Indians marched to
Niagara, where, around the fort, the English built
huts for them to pass the winter in. Owing to the
severe cold, hunting became impossible that season ;
so that they were forced to live on salted food, which
produced scurvy, and hundreds of them died.
283
PART VII
Last Years of the War
1780-1783
I
Schoharie
and the
Mohawk Laid Waste
1780
IN the work of the Sullivan expedition the grav-
est calamity in their recorded history had over-
whelmed the Iroquois. Of their civilization,
indeed, little remained save the Iroquois themselves.
But they were not to submit in despair. In the en-
suing years of the war, they descended again and
again upon the white man's frontier, leaving it at
last quite as desolate as their own land had become.
In Oriskany had been begun the Border Wars, but
in Sullivan's expedition new and deeper bitterness
was infused into the heart and soul of the Indian.
Appalling ruin at their hands was now to overwhelm
the settlements. But the Indians alone were not to
bring on this desolation. Substantial co-operation
came from the British.
Henceforth, indeed, the main war-scenes were to
be found in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys.
Little remained to be destroyed on the upper Sus-
quehanna. That region had become a land of
silence and desolation. Its houses were in ruins ;
its people had fled ; its soil had been given up to
Nature's wild growths. Guarded as the Mohawk
still was at Fort Schuyler, the Susquehanna re-
mained a highway, however, by which the Indians
287
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
and Tories could most safely reach the settlements
lying north and east.
Sullivan had scarcely returned to the seaboard
when complaints were made from the Mohawk Val-
ley of Indians who " eat our provisions whilst they
watch to cut our throats." Several persons had
been murdered and scalped in October of this same
year. On October 20th scouts brought word that
Fort Schuyler was threatened. Sir John Johnson
was said to be on his way with a thousand Indians,
besides a large body of regular troops supplied with
heavy cannon. While the regulars attacked the
fort, the Indians were to ravage the Mohawk Val-
ley.* Nothing came of this report in 1779, but in
the following year it was amply confirmed.
The enemy did not even wait for spring to open
before beginning the work of retaliation. In the
month of February, when there was fine snow-shoe
weather, a small force reached German Flatts, where
one woman was killed and three were wounded. In
March a party of thirty, also on snow-shoes, invaded
a settlement north of Palatine, killed one person,
made several prisoners, and burned some buildings.
They were painted after the fashion of Indians, but
were supposed to be Tories. Early in April, Indians
were hovering about Fort Schuyler. Scouts were
sent out to watch them in seven different places.
Brant, himself, came on from Niagara and during
the same month, with forty-three Indians and seven
Tories, reached Harpersfield, where he surprised
Captain Alexander Harper in a " sugar-bush."
Harper was approached as he was bending over
to adjust his snow-shoes. When holding his toma-
hawk in the air above Harper's head, Brant discov-
* Clinton Manuscripts.
MINISINK REVISITED
ered for the first time who the man before him was.
" Ah, Captain Harper," said he, " is it thee ? I am
sorry to find thee here." " Why are you sorry,
Captain Brant ? " asked Harper. " Because I must
kill thee," answered Brant. Harper remarked there
was " no use in killing those who submitted peace-
ably." Brant then having had Harper bound as a
prisoner, attacked the settlement at Harpersfield
and burned it. Three men were killed and eight
were made prisoners, the party proceeding across
the hills to the head of the Delaware. From camp
Harper wrote to his wife that Brant " uses me and
all those taken along with me exceeding well." Brant
had assured him that an exchange of prisoners could
be "easily obtained," providing the Americans were
willing to co-operate in the matter.
With other prisoners, Harper was taken to Ni-
agara, where he spent many months in captivity.
Patchin, in his narrative of the journey as given to
Priest, says that " from this place [Cookoze] we
crossed through the wilderness, over hills and moun-
tains the most difficult to be conceived of, till we
came to a place called Ochquago, on the Susque-
hanna River, which had been an Indian settlement
before the war. Here they constructed several rafts
out of old logs, which they fastened together with
withes and poles passing crosswise, on which, after
untying us, we were placed, themselves managing to
steer." Aboard these rafts the party proceeded to
Tioga Point and thence by land to Niagara.
While at Oghwaga Brant invaded the Ulster dis-
trict. Houses were burned, farms plundered, and
captives taken. Brant also sent out a detachment of
eleven warriors to seize prisoners in Minisink. Five
men were taken. At night, when the Indians were
289
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
asleep, one of the men freed his hands and feet of
the cords that bound them and released his four
companions. Seizing each a tomahawk they killed
nine of the eleven Indians and wounded one, the
survivor making good his escape. The Minisink
men then returned to their homes. When the sur-
viving Indian had joined the party of Brant and nar-
rated this tale, Brant's men became mad with desire
for revenge. Their knives and hatchets had been
made ready for the slaughter of Harper and his com-
panions when the surviving Indian, who was a chief,
rushed upon the scene and stayed their hands. He
declared that these white men had not killed the
Indians and to murder innocent men would offend
the Great Spirit. Stone lauds this conduct as " a
noble action, worthy of the proudest era of chivalry,"
and regrets that " the name of this high-souled war-
rior is lost." That sentiments of this kind had been
fostered by Brant there is no doubt. He wrote from
the Delaware, on April ioth of this year, addressing
his enemies :
That your Bostonians (alias Americans) may be certified
of my conduct towards all those whom I have captured in
these parts, know that I have taken ofFwith me but a small
number. Many have I released. Neither were the weak
and helpless subjected to death, for it is a shame to destroy
those who are defenceless. This has been uniformly my
conduct during the war. These being my sentiments you
have exceedingly angered me by threatening or distressing
those who may be considered as prisoners. Ye are (or once
were) brave men. I shall certainly destroy without dis-
tinction, does the like conduct take place in future.*
A month later alarming intelligence came once
more into the Mohawk valley. A messenger brought
* Brant MSS. in the Draper collection.
2QO
THE MOHAWK LAID WASTE
word that a vessel had sailed from Niagara with ioo
men under Butler and a small number of regular
troops. Brant had also sailed with 300 of his war-
riors. Both forces had landed at Oswego, where they
were joined by 150 other men. It was said that Sir
John Johnson was to attack his old home at Johns-
town as well as Stone Arabia, and that Brant was to
follow with an attack on Canajoharie. Another re-
port was that troops to the amount of 5,000, com-
posed of Indians, regulars, and Tories, would attack
Fort Schuyler. South, from Canada, by way of
Lake Champlain, came Sir John in May of this year
with 500 men, of whom 200 were Indians and To-
ries, the others British troops, and Sir John's Royal
Greens.
Sir John's destination was the Mohawk region in
which he had spent his early life, and he was ulti-
mately to visit the home of his father at Johnstown.
At Tribes Hill houses were plundered and some of
them burned. The home of Colonel Vissher was
then attacked, three brothers being scalped and the
house burned. For twelve or thirteen miles the
valley was traversed, forty prisoners being taken.
Stone says, every building not owned by a loyalist
was burned, sheep and cattle were killed and horses
taken away for the use of the army. Nine old men,
four of them being upward of eighty, were slain,
and in Caughnawaga the only building that escaped
destruction was the church.
Sir John, on arriving at his father's home, made
the house his head-quarters, the prisoners being
guarded in an open field. He had not visited this
home since his abrupt departure in 1776, four years
before. Stone describes how he caused to be dug
up the family silver, which had been buried in the
291
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
cellar. It filled two barrels and was divided among
forty of his soldiers, who carried it back to Montreal.
Meanwhile, militiamen led by Colonel Harper, who
from Fort Hunter had witnessed the burning of
Caughnawaga, and by Colonel Volkert Veeder ar-
rived, but as Tories had joined Sir John until his
forces numbered 700 or 1,000 men, or twice their
own, they were unable to engage him. Governor
Clinton, hearing of the invasion, sent a force to in-
tercept Sir John on his return by way of Lake Cham-
plain, but Sir John eluded his pursuers and made
his way safely back to Canada.
The arrival of Butler and Brant on the south side
of the river was not long delayed. By the middle
of May they had appeared on the upper Mohawk.
On June 10th a party of twenty Indians burned
houses and took prisoners at German Flatts. An-
other party invaded Schoharie and conveyed several
prisoners down to Unadilla. By July 1st reports
came from many settlements that Indians were hov-
ering about them. Fort Schuyler was in distress for
want of provisions. At the Schoharie forts, outside
the local militia there were only eighty men to de-
fend them.* Block-houses, meanwhile, had been
erected for the protection of women and children.
Farmers ploughed their fields and gathered their
crops assembled in companies. They kept their rifles
near at hand and sent out scouts to watch for the ap-
proach of the enemy.
Late in July 600 Indians and 200 white men, led
by Brant and a British officer, appeared at Fort
Schuyler and killed several horses. They cut off
communication between the fort and German Flatts,
and captured fifty-three prisoners. This movement
* Clinton MSS.
292
THE MOHAWK LAID WASTE
is understood to have been a feint. After Sir John's
departure, Governor Clinton had sent General Gan-
sevoort with a mass of stores to Fort Schuyler, and
Brant caused it to be made known that he intended
to take the Fort. This induced the sending forward
of men for its defence from the lower valley, leaving
that region unprotected. Brant meanwhile quietly
slipped down the Unadilla River, and thus his ap-
proach to Canajoharie by the Susquehanna route
was in danger of no opposition.
Early in the year Brant had contemplated this
invasion of his early home, he and Sir John being
thus actuated by similar enterprises, but for some
cause he had deferred it until midsummer. The
attack on Canajoharie was finally made on August
2d. There were 450 Indians with him. He killed
fourteen persons, burned nearly all the houses, capt-
ured fifty or sixty prisoners, took three hundred
head of cattle, horses and pigs, and burned more
than one hundred houses and barns, one church,
one mill, two forts, and a quantity of farm tools.
Colonel Clyde reported that all this happened " at a
very unfortunate hour, when all the militia of the
country was called up to Fort Schuyler to guard
nine battoes about half loaded."
This destruction, combined with other work done
by Brant during the expedition, resulted in the kill-
ing of twenty-four persons and the capture of sev-
enty-three prisoners. The destruction of Canajoharie
was over before militia arrived from Schenectady and
Albany. Indians alone were in the expedition.
Brant's route led him now to the head of the Dela-
ware, where he wrote to one of the Schoharie officers:
I understand that my friend Hendrick Nuff and Cook
is taken prisoners near at Esopus. I would be glad if you
293
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
would be so kind as to let those people know that took
them not to use my friends too hard, for if they will use
hard and hurt them, I will certainly pay for it, for we have
several rebels in our hands makes me mention this, for it
would be disagreeable to me to hurt my prisoners. There-
fore I hope they will not force me.*
Adam Crysler, went to Vroomansland in Au-
gust, under orders, he said, from Sir John Johnson
" to proceed with a party of Oughquagos, etc., to
Schoharie where I had a skirmish with the Rebels ;
took five scalps, two prisoners, and burned some
houses and barns." After these disasters General
TenBroeck wrote to Governor Clinton that " the
most opulent parts of Tryon County, Stone Arabia
excepted, had fallen beneath the invader."
* Clinton MSS
294
II
Sir John and
Brant Return
AUGUST had not passed before word arrived
of a new invasion. It was said that Sir John
intended to strike Stone Arabia, and that
2,000 men were coming with him. Early in Sep-
tember sixty-five of the enemy attacked Fort Day-
ton, and small parties were hovering about elsewhere.
Sir John's new enterprise was destined to become
memorable. Primarily it was an expedition of Brit-
ish origin and has been thought to have been con-
nected with Arnold's treason, that last attempt to
secure control of the Hudson valley. Sir John, it
has been understood, had knowledge of Arnold's
purposes, Arnold having been in treasonable cor-
respondence with the British for probably a year
before his designs were discovered. By this in-
vasion, at any rate, it was hoped that Sir John
would attract a force away from West Point, making
it more easy for the British to gain possession of the
Hudson. He was already far advanced on his way
when the treason of Arnold was laid bare in the capt-
ure of Andre at Tarrytown.
Another motive for the expedition was the demor-
alizing effects produced by the Sullivan expedition
among British sympathizers in Tryon County. Seri-
ous doubts now began to possess them as to Eng-
land's success. They were showing a disposition to
unite with the patriot party. Some of them had
295
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
gone so far as to swear allegiance to Congress, fear-
ing extermination if they did not do so. It was Sir
John's hope that he might restore this lost confi-
dence.
At Painted Post, or Tioga Point, were probably
collected the Indian forces, now much enlarged in
their numbers, and with the famous Seneca warrior
called the Corn-Planter * co-operating with Brant.
They marched thence to Unadilla and here, prob-
ably, were joined by the forces which Sir John had
gathered and brought on by way of Buck Island,
and thence by Oswego, Oneida Lake, and the Una-
dilla River. Hough remarks, that many of the men
" were intimately acquainted with the topography of
the country through which they were to pass, having
formerly resided in the valley."
One estimate places the total number after the
junction was made at 1,500, while another says it
was 2,000. Governor Clinton reported to Wash-
ington that Sir John had 750 picked British troops,
besides Brant's corps of Indians and Tories. Hear-
ing of the approach of the expedition, the Tryon
County committee reported that " it would be in the
power of the enemy to destroy almost all the grain
collected, besides the rest of the settlements yet
standing." Colonel Harper was sent out to watch
Sir John's approach, and Timothy Murphy pro-
ceeded as far as Unadilla with a scouting party
under Sergeant Lloyd, among whom were B. C.
Vrooman, William Leek, and Robert Hull.
From Unadilla the expedition proceeded into
Schoharie by the well-worn route to the mouth of
* The Corn-Planter was a half-breed noted for his eloquence. At one
time he was a rival of Red Jacket, the Seneca chief, whose gifts in pub-
lic speaking won for him the name of Keeper-Awake.
296
SIR JOHN AND BRANT RETURN
the Charlotte and thence followed that stream to
Summit Lake making camp on the south side.*
Crossing the dividing line beyond the lake the ex-
pedition passed on to what is now Middleburgh,
where were fifty local militiamen, and a garrison of
150 other state troops, possessed, however, of only
a few rounds of powder for each man. About 500
men began the siege, which was stoutly resisted.f
Meanwhile, the enemy plundered and burned the
settlements.
Failing to subdue the fort the expedition began a
desolating march down the Schoharie Valley, burn-
ing and otherwise destroying everything it found
on the way. Horses and cattle were taken and
nothing escaped the invaders except the homes and
property of loyalists. Only two men were killed
and one wounded at the fort, but the number of
unprotected inhabitants killed is said to have reached
100. Schoharie had never seen finer fields of grain
than those which Sir John destroyed. It was one
of the most prosperous regions on the frontier. Few
log houses remained there, good frame structures
having supplanted the ruder dwellings of an earlier
time. Arrived at Fort Hunter the desolating work
* The authority for this statement is William E. Roscoe, of Carlisle,
who learned the facts from a man named Monk, son of a Tory who took
part in the expedition.
f Of this Schoharie invasion, Stone relates the following incident :
" One of the farmers on that day, while engaged with his boys in un-
loading a wagon of grain at the barn, hearing a shriek, looked about and
saw a party of Indians and Tories between himself and the house. ' The
enemy, my boys ! ' said the father, and sprang from the wagon, but in
attempting to leap the fence, a rifle ball brought him dead upon the spot.
The shriek had proceeded from his wife, who, in coming from the garden,
had discovered the savages, and screamed to give the alarm. She was
struck down by a tomahawk. Her little son, five years old, who had been
playing about the wagon, run up to his mother in an agony of grief, as she
lay weltering in blood, and was knocked on the head and left dead by the
side of his parent. The two other boys were carried away into Canada,
and did not return until after the war."
297
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
was continued. All that Brant had left of Caughna-
waga was destroyed. The invaders then passed to the
westward, spreading ruin in their path, until, says
Stone, " both shores of the Mohawk were lighted up
by the conflagration of everything combustible, while
the panic-stricken inhabitants only escaped slaughter
or captivity by flight."
Back from the river at Palatine stood the ancient
settlement of Stone Arabia guarded by a small
stockade. Militia were sent forward to protect it,
and re-enforcements were to follow. But these did
not come and the others were overpowered after
forty or forty-five of them had been slain, including
Colonel Brown, one of the bravest men on the
frontier, who in the Burgoyne campaign had dis-
tinguished himself by liberating ioo American
prisoners and making prisoners of nearly 300 of the
enemy. The survivors took to flight, whereupon
everything in that neighborhood fell a victim to the
destroyer. Laden with plunder Sir John pushed
on to Klock's Field, three miles to the west. Here
ensued a battle, General Robert Van Rensselaer hav-
ing come up the river with 1,500 men, a force su-
perior to Sir John's. After a brief battle, the enemy
closely pressed took to flight. Colonel Dubois wished
to pursue them, but General Van Rensselaer ordered
his forces to retire in order to find a better place for
a bivouac, night being at hand.
This action on the general's part has been much
condemned, as it was condemned at the time by his
subordinates. Stone says it was learned from one
of the prisoners that at the time the retreat was
ordered Sir John was ready to capitulate. When
morning dawned the enemy were nowhere in sight.
General Van Rensselaer set out in pursuit. He
2Q8
KLOCK'S FIELD
sent forward from Fort Herkimer a force to over-
take Sir John and promised to follow himself, but
this he failed to do. Meanwhile, another force,
which he had ordered out from Fort Schuyler to
oppose Sir John made an advance, but while en-
gaged at dinner, was surprised by Brant and every
man was captured — two captains, one lieutenant,
eight non-commissioned officers, and forty-five pri-
vates. No obstacle impeding his flight, Sir John
pushed on to the westward. *
On leaving the Mohawk Valley Sir John had
crossed the head waters of the Unadilla River ac-
companied by Brant, who was suffering from a pain-
ful wound in the heel. Seeing an American officer
among the prisoners, Brant, from sudden impulse, is
said to have tomahawked him. On being remon-
strated with he said he was sorry he had not con-
trolled himself while in pain, but the heel felt better
since he had done this deed.f
At Fort Plain one of Sir John's prisoners was
John O'Bail (written also O'Beal, O'Ball, and Abeel),
an old man, who in his youth had frequently lived
among the Indians, and, by an Indian woman, had
had a son who was the Corn-Planter. Just beyond
Fort Plain, the Corn-Planter said to him : " If you
* It should be stated here that a Court of Inquiry into the conduct of
General Van Rensselaer convened in March of the following year and ex-
onerated the General. Among the Clinton MSS. are its findings, filling
forty-eight folio pages. It unanimously gave the opinion that "the whole
of Gen. Van Rensselaer's conduct both before and after, as well as in,
the action of October 19th, was not only unexceptionable, but such as
became a good, active, faithful, prudent, and spirited officer, — and that the
public clamours to his prejudice on that account are without the least
foundation."
f Weld's Travels in America. The reader will note that this incident
is inconsistent with Brant's assertion that he had never killed more than
one man in cold blood — the man whom he killed when he supposed the
man had lied to him. The author has found no confirmation of Weld's
story in other writings.
299
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
now choose to follow the fortunes of your yellow son,
and to live with us people, I will cherish your old
age with plenty of venison and you shall live easy ;
but if it is your choice to return to your friends and
live with your white children, I will send a party of
my trusty young men to conduct you back in safety ;
I respect you, my father." O'Bail decided to re-
turn to his white children.
Elsewhere on the frontier considerable alarm ex-
isted through the autumn of this year. An expedi-
tion had, indeed, come down from the north under
Colonel Carleton and had burned Ballston. Sara-
toga and Stillwater expected to be attacked. St.
Leger was known to be on Lake Champlain with
a large force. An Oneida Indian, in December,
brought word to the Mohawk Valley that, in the
following year, Schenectady would be destroyed.
There was much suffering that winter at Fort
Schuyler. Food was scarce, and many of the garri-
son were so badly clothed that not more than twenty
were fit to be sent out on foraging expeditions.
300
Ill
Colonel Willett
Expels the Invaders
1781
THE year in which Cornwallis surrendered
brought to the frontier drastic and successful
measures for its defense. Colonel William
Butler had, it is true, destroyed the two Indian
head-quarters at Unadilla and Oghwaga, but he re-
turned from the Susquehanna Valley as soon as that
work was done, and six weeks later the savages and
Tories poured into Cherry Valley, burned its houses
and massacred its people. And so with General
Sullivan. He overturned every sign of Indian civ-
ilization that he found in western New York, only
to return whence he had come and to be followed
by the two expeditions of 1780 that spread desola-
tion throughout the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys.
In the early summer of 178 1 there arrived in the
Mohawk Valley a man whose presence meant stern
and effective action. This was Colonel Marinus
Willett, the only man in permanent command on
the frontier during these Border Wars who could
be said at any time to have become master of the
territory committed to his charge. Under him were
consolidated five New York regiments. After much
urging he had been induced to leave the main army
and take this command.
Colonel Willett, afterward a brigadier, was one of
the bravest and most efficient officers of minor rank
301
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
who served in the Revolution. He was already a
veteran of the French war, having won distinction
in Abercrombie's expedition of 1758 against Fort
Ticonderoga, and having been present at the capture
of Fort Frontenac. He had been one of the lead-
ers of the Sons of Liberty in New York City, and
in June, 1775, had prevented the dispatch of arms
from the New York arsenal to the British troops in
Boston. Under Montgomery he went to Canada
in 1775. At Fort Schuyler in 1777 he was second
in command, and led the sally from the fort against
St. Leger, that secured to the militia the final
victory at Oriskany. He afterward served under
Washington in New Jersey, and in 1779 was with
Sullivan in western New York.
Before Colonel Willett arrived, there had been
constant irruptions all through the spring and sum-
mer of 1 78 1. In January scouts of Brant were at
German Flatts, and in February and March at other
places along the valley. Late in April the enemy
was seen near Minisink. Finally, on April a6th,
another descent by eighty men was made upon
Cherry Valley, and in its way this, too, was a mas-
sacre. All the people of the place, except one man
and four boys, were either murdered or captured.
Fifteen of the Indians then descended upon Cana-
joharie, killed four persons and several children and
burned houses, mills, and barns. The number killed
at Cherry Valley was eight, and the prisoners taken
away were fourteen.*
Meanwhile Schenectady was reported to be in
danger. People in Albany were packing up their
household goods preparing to depart, and the bar-
racks at Fort Schuyler were burned. Fort Schuyler
* Statement of Andrew McFarlan in the Clinton MSS.
302
COLONEL MARINUS WILLETT
(From the frontispiece to " A Narrative of the Military Actions of
Colonel Marinus Willett."J
WILLETT IN COMMAND
had suffered severely that year from a flood. It was
estimated that more than two-thirds of the works
had been ruined, and that 500 or 600 men would be
necessary to repair them. Fire now destroyed what
remained. After the war, the fortress was rebuilt
and the former name, Fort Stanwix, as already stated,
was given to it again.
Tories were everywhere now increasing in num-
bers, and many inhabitants with Tory sympathies
were giving food and shelter to the invaders. Sug-
gestions came from the main army that the forces
on the frontier should be removed, but these were
firmly resisted. It was insisted instead that an ex-
pedition ought to go out to Buck Island. Wash-
ington was then maturing his plans with Rocham-
beau at Dobbs Ferry, intending to make his famous
descent upon Cornwallis in the South and troops
were wanted for that campaign.
So far from being able to take care of itself, the
frontier was more defenceless than ever. When
the war began, the enrolled militiamen in Tryon
County numbered quite 1,500 men, but in the
summer of 178 1 the number liable to bear arms,
according to Stone, did not exceed 800. This
astonishing change was due in about equal propor-
tions to three causes — men who had been killed,
those who had fled, and those who had gone over to
the enemy. In these circumstances blockhouses
had been erected for the defense of women and chil-
dren, each house holding from ten to fifty families.
In 178 1 there were twenty-four such structures be-
tween Schenectady and Fort Schuyler.
With the arrival at Canajoharie of Colonel Wil-
lett everyone in the Mohawk Valley took heart
afresh. He soon ascertained that the settlement of
303
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Torlock, lying northeast of Cherry Valley, was a
conspicuous haunt of Tories, and proposed to eradi-
cate them. He wrote to Governor Clinton asking
if there would be any difficulty in securing their
punishment ; otherwise he was willing to assume
" all the responsibility of having them hanged him-
self." Some of these Tories had promised $10 for
every scalp taken, and fifty acres of land to all per-
sons who joined them.
The settlement of Currietown having been put
under the torch, Willett sent a force to its defence.
He then went in pursuit of the enemy and a battle
occurred at what is known as Sharon Centre, where
in a cedar swamp still to be seen, aoo or 300 Ind-
ians and Tories were dispersed. About forty Ind-
ians were killed, and five Americans. The Indians
were commanded by a chief named Quackyack and
the Tories by John Doxstader, who had come from
Johnstown and is believed to have retreated to Ogh-
waga when pursued. Willett had with him only
150 men, including some militiamen. He led the
attack in person, waving his hat and saying he could
catch in the hat all the balls the enemy might send.
In this fight Captain Robert McKean, the brave
scout, was wounded, and from the effects of the shot
afterward died. Before the battle the Indians had
bound to trees nine prisoners whom they had taken
at Currietown. These men were tomahawked and
scalped when the action began. Willett's soldiers
afterward buried them, but one of the nine, Jacob
Diefendorf, was not actually dead and his grave
being only slightly covered he was able to extricate
himself when consciousness returned. Some of
Willett's soldiers afterward found Diefendorf lying
outside his own grave. Stone received this story
304
WILLETT IN COMMAND
from Diefendorf himself. On July 1 5th, Willett's
men captured ninety head of cattle at Torlock, these
cattle being sent to Fort Herkimer, where now were
quartered the troops who had been forced to aban-
don Fort Schuyler in consequence of the destruction
of the barracks.*
The next news from the enemy was that they had
burned Wawarsing in Ulster County and had re-
turned by way of Lackawaxen to Oghwaga. There
were 300 Indians and ninety Tories in the party.
In September an attack was made on a settlement
occupying part of the site of the present village of
Cobleskill, where between twenty and thirty Indians
killed one man and took seven prisoners. Later in
the season George Warner of Cobleskill was made
a prisoner and, along with others, conveyed to Ni-
agara, where were now confined about 200 Ameri-
cans. Another incident in this neighborhood was the
murder of Captain Dietz's family, his father, mother,
wife, and four children, with a Scotch servant girl,
by fifteen Tories and Indians. Near Little Falls,
in an ambuscade, eleven men had been killed.
Near the end of October Colonel Willett was able
to drive the invaders out of the valley and in cir-
cumstances which make one of the most gratifying
incidents in all this story of tne Border Wars. Ma-
jor Ross had sailed from Buck Island with 450 men.
Leaving his boats in Oneida Lake in charge of
twenty invalid men, he proceeded by the Unadilla
River and Cherry Valley to Warren's Bush on the
Mohawk,f where he killed two men and burned
twenty houses and large stores of grain. Brant and
Crysler, meanwhile, with sixty or seventy Indians
and Tories, fought an engagement on Summit, or
* Clinton MSS. t Ibid.
30S
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Utsyantha Lake. Joachim van Valkenburg in that
fight lost his life. He had been known in Schoharie
as one of the bravest of scouts. Crysler says he had
twenty-eight men at Summit Lake,* that he took
off fifty cattle and some horses, but on being pur-
sued twenty-five miles down the Charlotte lost the
cattle and made no attempt to recover them.
Major Ross went on to Johnstown, pursued by
Colonel Willett, and was forced to retreat, losing
seven men killed, thirty or forty wounded, and twen-
ty-two who were taken prisoners. His little army
had swollen to about 600 men, of whom 155 were
regulars, 120 Sir John's Royal Greens, 150 Butler's
Rangers, and 130 Indians.f Willett closely fol-
lowed him to Fort Herkimer and when the motley
forces turned to ascend the West Canada Creek,
pursued them in a snowstorm. Twelve miles up
the stream, at a difficult fording-place, where some
of the enemy turned, Willett attacked them vigor-
ously, killing several, among whom was the notori-
ous Captain Walter Butler. J With the hand of an
artist Willett has described this retreat :
Their flight was performed in an Indian file upon a con-
stant trot, and one man being knocked in the head or falling
off into the woods, never stopped the progress of his neigh-
bors. Not even the fall of their favorite Butler could attract
their attention so much as to induce them to take even the
money or anything else out of his pocket, although he was
not dead when found by one of our Indians who finished his
business for him, and got a considerable booty. Strange as
it may appear, yet notwithstanding the enemy had been four
* The Indian name of this lake, Utsyantha, means beautiful spring,
cold and pure. The spring at the head of the Delaware was then called
Oteseondeo. Dr. Beauchamp thinks it may be the same word.
t Clinton MSS.
t Butler has sometimes been called Major, but the commission found
in one of his pockets showed that he had only a captain's rank.
306
WALTER BUTLER'S DEATH
days with only half a pound of horse flesh for each man per
day, yet they did not halt from the time we began to pursue
them until they had proceeded more than thirty miles (and
they continued their route a considerable part of the night).
In this situation, to the compassion of a starving wilderness,
we left them, in a fair way of receiving a punishment better
suited to their merits than a musket ball, a tomahawk, or
captivity.*
The circumstances in which Butler died have been
narrated in more detail by Campbell :
When he arrived at West Canada Creek he swam his
horse across the stream and then, turning around, defied his
pursuers, who were on the opposite side. An Oneida im-
mediately discharged his rifle and wounded him and he fell.
Throwing down his rifle and his blanket, the Indian plunged
into the creek and swam across ; as soon as he had gained
the opposite bank, he raised his tomahawk and with a yell,
sprang, like a tiger, upon his fallen foe. Butler supplicated,
though in vain, for mercy ; the Oneida, with his uplifted
axe, shouted in his broken English, " Sherry Valley ! re-
member Sherry Valley ! " and then buried it in his brain ;
he tore the scalp from the head of his victim, still quivering
in the agonies of death, and ere the remainder of the Onei-
das had joined him, the spirit of Walter Butler had gone to
give up its account. The place where he crossed is called
Butler's Ford to this day.
Still another account says Butler was " shot dead
at once, having no time to implore for mercy." But
Seeber Granger, who afterward lived in Cherry Val-
ley and had been present at Butler's death, told Levi
Beardsley that Butler was first shot in the back by an
Oneida Indian from across the creek and tomahawked
afterward. Whatever the details, it was meet that
Butler should perish by the sword.
* Clinton MSS.
307
IV
Final War Scenes
1782-1783
TEN days before Walter Butler, abandoned
by his companions in retreat, died in that
northern forest, Cornwallis surrendered.
Pursued by Greene and La Fayette, his armies over-
come again and again, he had retired to Yorktown.
South from the Highlands with Rochambeau had
come Washington, and there at Yorktown it was
now the Englishman, instead of the American, who
became the fox that was bagged. With 37 war-
ships and 7,000 men, General Sir Henry Clinton,
ten days later, reached New York.
For the country at large the war was over, but
not for the New York frontier. Alarms and active
invasions were still to occur. Colonel Willett had
driven the enemy, starving, into the wilderness and
might have inflicted greater punishment, had not
General Stark called away two companies of men
and thus caused what Willett, in his official report,
called, "an essential injury." Indeed a state of
war scarcely ceased to exist on the frontier for a
year and a half longer. Early in the winter, at a
meeting of militia generals, it was voted unani-
mously that defences were still necessary, and in
January there was talk of raising more troops. The
enemy was lurking on the Ulster borders ; Tories
were giving them assistance ; Schoharie was in a state
of alarm, and new block-houses were being erected.*
* Clinton MSS.
308
FINAL WAR SCENES
In July a party of Indians set out for the upper
Susquehanna and Delaware, but were diverted to
German Flatts, whence they were called to Oswego
where reinforcements were promised. By the end
of July it was feared that all remains of settlements
in the Mohawk Valley would be destroyed. There
were 560 of the enemy assembled at Oswego, of
whom 350 were Yagers, but there were no Indians.
Brant's followers had already been at Canajoharie
whence they had proceeded to German Flatts.
Brant had 500 or 600 men with him and had car-
ried away 125 cattle for the army at Oswego.
Early in August he started out again, but a scout
was dispatched to call him back. Major Ross
remarked that owing to the cessation of hostilities,
he would rather have given 50 guineas than that
Brant should have gone out. Brant returned with
eighteen prisoners and one scalp.*
As late as October rumors were heard that an
army was coming down from Canada to desolate
the Mohawk. The fortifications at Oswego had
been rebuilt and 400 men were stationed there.
Here was one of the few strongholds now left in
British hands. Its occupation had been of signal
service to them in the years that had passed since
Oriskany. Owing to delay in hearing that the
Treaty of Peace had been signed, it was determined
to make an attempt to capture it. Should another
campaign be necessary, possession of Oswego by
the Americans would be of the highest importance.
Colonel Willett set out in February, 1783, and came
within a few miles of the fortress, but was then
forced by the severe weather, the mistake of a guide,
and other obstacles to turn back his steps. This is
* Bartholomew Forbes's statement in the Clinton MSS.
309
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
believed to have been the last offensive operation
undertaken on the frontier, if not in the war itself.
British troops and Tories alone now remained at
Oswego. Late in the previous summer the Indians
had been sent home. The British had informed
them that their services were no longer needed, and
their supplies of provisions were stopped. After
expressing great displeasure at this treatment, they
departed with sullen faces into the wilderness.*
It awakens real sympathy to read that statement.
Considering how small was the force of Indian war-
riors at any time in Iroquois history, the men led to
the frontier by Brant must be accepted as large
Indian armies — as large, perhaps, as were ever put
into the field. The total of all who served under
the British has been placed at 1,580, while those
friendly to the Americans numbered about 230.
Of the Oneidas only 150 followed the British, while
of the Mohawks they had in their service 300 and
of the Senecas, 400.
It was base ingratitude that the English, in this
last scene at Oswego, showed toward their faithful
savage allies. In this war the Indians had had
nothing to gain and all to lose. When the war
closed they had, in fact, lost everything in the world
that was theirs. That conduct at Oswego, more-
over, was an ingratitude which the English Gov-
ernment itself was afterward to exhibit when the
treaty of peace with the colonies was drawn and
signed. Strangely contrasted this ingratitude
stands with that attention and that expenditure so
freely bestowed on Brant and the other Indians
during their visit to England in the early years of
the war.
* Affidavit of Joseph Clements in the Clinton MSS.
3IO
FINAL WAR SCENES
Desolation now prevailed everywhere on the
frontier. During journeys westward with prisoners,
fishing and hunting had long been the only methods
of securing food in the Susquehanna Valley. The
sites of former villages, Indian as well as white man
villages, had become forlorn and blackened scenes.
Thorns and shrubs had grown up where wheat and
corn had waved their heads. Weeds and brambles
flourished where hearthstones once had blazed.
Captain Dietz, survivor of the family murdered in
Schoharie, while a prisoner lived on birch bark and
berries, during the journey down the Susquehanna,
save that at the mouth of the Unadilla a deer was
shot and starvation thus averted. Another party
of prisoners found at Oghwaga a colt lost by Dock-
stader. They killed it and. lived long on its flesh,
a part being dried and taken on the journey.
Others are known to have passed four days without
food. Life in one case was sustained by the flesh of
a wolf, in another a hen hawk was eaten, in another
a rattlesnake. Bread and salt there were none.
Fresh ashes were often used as a substitute for salt.
Patchin told Priest that beyond Chemung a dead
horse left by the Sullivan expedition was found in
the spring of 1780, and enough of the carcass had
survived the attacks of wolves to furnish food. On
the Genesee River were met some Indians planting
corn. The Indians had a horse which Brant
ordered killed and the meat distributed. Patchin
declares that Brant insisted that prisoners and Ind-
ians should share alike in food. Brant's parties had
often been provided with food at the home of Mary
Jemison, a regular stopping-place on the route to
Niagara. " Many and many a night," says she, " I
have pounded samp for them from sunset to sun-
3 11
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
rise and furnished them with the necessary provis-
ions and clean clothing for their journey."
On arrival in Canada the privations endured by
the prisoners were often great. Bloodgood mentions
three men who spent two years working like slaves
without hats in the cornfield. When they returned
to Schoharie after the war they presented a very wo-
ful appearance with their faces burned almost black.
A touching story is told by Priest of Miss Annie
McKee. She was made a prisoner at Harpersfleld
and taken to Niagara, where the squaws insisted that
she should go through the terrible ordeal of running
the gauntlet :
It was a grievous sight to see a slender girl, weak from
hunger and worn down with the horrors and privations of a
four hundred miles' journey through the woods by night and
day, compelled at the end to run this race of shame and suf-
fering. Her head was bare and her hair tangled into mats,
her feet naked and bleeding from wounds, all her clothes
torn to rags during her march — one would have thought the
heart-rending sight would have moved the savages. She
wept not, for all her tears had been shed. She stared around
upon the grinning multitude in hopeless amazement and fixed
despair, while she glanced mournfully at the fort which lay
at the end of the race. The signal was given, which was a
yell, when she immediately started off as fast as she could,
while the squaws laid on their whips with all their might, thus
venting their malice and hatred upon a white woman. She
reached the fort in almost a dying condition, being beaten
and cut in the most dreadful manner, as her person had been
so much exposed on account of the want of clothing to pro-
tect her. She was at length allowed to go to her friends —
some Scotch people then living in Canada — and after the
war she returned to the States.
In December, 178 1, with the record not yet com-
plete, it was estimated that in Tryon County 700
312
FINAL WAR SCENES
buildings had been burned, 613 persons had deserted,
and 3 54 families had abandoned their dwellings. The
number of farms that lay uncultivated was placed at
12,000. Governor Clinton estimated that the wheat
destroyed would amount to 1 50,000 bushels. Tryon
County had lost two-thirds of its inhabitants. Of
those who remained 380 were widows and a,ooo
were fatherless children.*
* A collection of grim and curious souvenirs of this warfare was long
supposed to have been captured and taken to Albany early in the spring
of 1782. Along with a mass of peltry were said to have been found
eight large packages containing scalps, " taken in the last three years by
the Seneca Indians from the inhabitants of the frontiers of New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia." The scalps, "cured, dried,
hooped, and painted with all the Indian triumphal marks," had been de-
signed for shipment from Tioga Point in January of the same year to Sir
Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Canada, who was asked to transmit
them "over the water to the Great King, that he may regard them and
be refreshed, and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his ene-
mies and be convinced that his presents have not been made to ungrate-
ful people."
The letter to Sir Frederick Haldimand added that "the Great King's
enemies are many, and they grow fast in number. They were formerly
like young panthers ; they could neither bite nor scratch ; we could play
with them safely ; we feared nothing they could do to us. But now their
bodies are become big as the elk and strong as the buffalo ; they have
also got great and sharp claws. They have driven us out of our country
by [our] taking part in your quarrel. We expect the Great King will
give us another country that our children may live after us and be his
friends and children as we are. We are poor and you have plenty of
everything. We know you will send us powder and guns and knives
and hatchets ; but we also want shirts and blankets."
An invoice and description of the scalps were given in which appears
the following : " No. I. Containing 43 scalps of Congress soldiers killed
in different skirmishes ; these are stretched on black hoops, four inch
diameter ; the inside of the skin painted red with a small black spot to
note their being killed with bullets. Also sixty-two farmers, killed in
their houses ; the hoops red, the skin painted brown and marked with a
hoe ; a black circle all round to denote their being surprised in the night ;
and a black hatchet in the middle signifying their being killed with that
weapon. No. 2. Containing 98 of farmers killed in their houses ; hoops
red ; figure of a hoe to mark their profession ; great white circle and sun,
to show they were surprised in the daytime ; a little red foot to show they
stood upon their defence, and died fighting for their lives and families.
No. 5. Containing 88 scalps of women ; hair long, braided in the Indian
fashion, to show they were mothers ; hoops blue ; skin yellow ground,
with little red tadpoles, to represent, by way of triumph, the tears of
3*3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Such was this warfare. The consequences were
far greater destruction to settlements than the Revo-
lution brought to any other part of the Colonies.
For the only approach to these losses we must go
to the distant South, where, in the late years of the
conflict, ruthless destruction was done. But those
parts offer a suggestion, not a parallel.
It is natural to say that this destruction in New
York should have been averted, and that, with
proper precautions, it might have been. Nothing
is clearer than that the authorities were inexcusably
slow to realize the danger and completely failed to
guard against it. Aside from the Sullivan expedi-
tion and Colonel Willett's success of October, 178 1,
no body of men sent to the frontier succeeded in
one instance in crushing the enemy. It may well
be questioned if the appalling havoc wrought by
Colonel William Butler in the Susquehanna Valley
and by General Sullivan's army in the Genesee
country was not the gravest of all errors committed
during these attempts to provide protection for the
frontier.
It was not offensive warfare that the frontier
needed, but defensive. Oriskany and the two ex-
peditions merely roused the Indians to warfare still
more savage. Could the men whom General Sulli-
grief occasioned to their relations ; a black scalping-knife or hatchet at
the bottom, to mark their being killed with those instruments ; 17 others,
hair very gray ; black hoops, plain brown colour ; no mark but the short
club or cassetete, to show they were knocked down dead, or had their
brains beat out. No. 7. 211 girls scalped, big and little; small yellow
hoops ; white ground ; tears, hatchet, club, scalping-knife, &c. No. 8.
This package is a mixture of all the varieties above mentioned, to the
number of 122 ; with a box of birch bark, containing 29 little infants'
scalps of various sizes ; small white hoops ; white ground."
This letter was long supposed to be genuine and has often been printed
as if it were. Stone, however, discovered that it was written by Franklin
" for political purposes."
3H
RESPONSIBILITIES
van led have been stationed permanently, and as
early as September, 1777, in forts at Unadilla,
Schoharie, and Cherry Valley, thus guarding the
upper Susquehanna, Schoharie, and lower Mohawk
valleys in the way that Fort Schuyler guarded the
upper Mohawk, much that was destroyed might
have been saved.*
We must hold the English first responsible for
these frontier wars, in that it was they who coaxed
the Indians into the fighting at Oriskany, whence
proceeded the impelling force in the Indian breast
for the invasions that followed. In Oriskany was
aroused the strongest passion an Indian can know
— the desire for revenge. In Butler's and Sullivan's
work that passion was intensified into the bitterest
hatred possible to that deep and dark aboriginal
nature. Just as the Susquehanna Valley became
the victim after Oriskany, so was it the Mohawk,
Schoharie, and Delaware valleys that paid the pen-
alty after Butler and Sullivan came.
I am writing here of the Indians. As for the
Tories, their work was connected in effect, and
mainly in design, with the struggle for the Hudson
Valley. That great highway never passed from the
control of the American armies. Twice it was
nearly lost — once through British valor, once
through treason — but lost entirely it never was.
For the maintenance of possession of it honor
belongs to many — to Washington above all ; to
• Governor Clinton had suggested to Washington in March, 1779,
"the Propriety of erecting one or two small Posts on the nearest navi-
gable Waters of the Susquehanah ; they would serve as a security to the
Settlements, & oi Course induce the Militia to engage in the Service
with greater alacrity. From the general Idea I have of the Country, I
am led to believe that the Unida [Unadilla] & where the Susque-
hanah empties out of the Lakes, West of Cherry Valley, would be the
most elligiblc places."
3 l S
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Philip Schuyler, to George Clinton, and to Benedict
Arnold only in lesser degree (traitor though Arnold
afterward became). But the full measure of obli-
gation remains yet to be bestowed upon men,
women, and children in the fertile valleys of four
rivers, where their homes and crops were converted
into conflagrations, and they themselves, as cattle
and game might be, were slaughtered.
This chapter should not close without a repeti-
tion of something already said — that, in so far as
concerns property, the losses of the frontiersmen
were more than equalled, if we have regard for pro-
portions, by the appalling destruction done to Iro-
quois villages. Of those losses and of Indian lives
that were lost, let it always be remembered that no
historian from the forest has ever chronicled the
moving story — a story pervaded by the deepest
pathos that comes into human lives.
316
The Iroquois
After the War
NOT alone had Iroquois civilization been
overthrown. A still more pathetic fate
awaited that proud people. One of the
most touching results of the war, indeed, was the
permanent exile that came to many of them — exile
from streams and forests where for at least three
hundred years their race had found a home. De-
prived of British support, they saw themselves at
the mercy of men whom they had fought as rebels,
but who were now the victorious masters of an
imperial domain. Nothing for them was exacted
by the British in the treaty of peace. Not even
their names were mentioned. They were simply
abandoned to the mercies of the victors — these mis-
guided children of the forest, who, in Morgan's
words, went forth " not to peril their lives for them-
selves, but to keep the 'covenant chain' with a
transatlantic ally." The misfortunes of the Indians
have awakened pity from other writers. Campbell,
in closing his narrative of the darkest deeds in the
war period, says :
When I look over this land, the domain of the once
proud Iroquois, and remember how, in the days of their
glory, they defended this infant colony from the ravages of
the French, and contrast their former state — numerous,
powerful, and respected — with their present condition, I feel
almost disposed to blot out the record which I have made
of their subsequent cruelties.
317
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
It was not strictly true of all the Iroquois that
their alliance with the English had been unshaken.
At various times the French, as we have seen, made
serious inroads upon the English. When Sir Will-
iam Johnson appeared upon the scene, Joncaire
had intrigued with the four western nations to very
real purpose. The Mohawks alone remained al-
ways loyal. Early in the eighteenth century, the
Jesuit missionaries had ceased to be purely religious
zealots. They were then as much the agents of the
King of France as agents of the Church of Rome.
The Canadian Jesuits having originally been " be-
fore all things, an apostle," his successor, says
Parkman, " was before all things a political agent."
At Onondaga, in 1709, sentiment had become much
divided as between the English and the French.
Although Abraham Schuyler won back the waver-
ing red men, their sympathies a generation later
gave signs of flowing back once more to France.
Had not Johnson appeared at this critical period,
Parkman thinks the intrigues of the French would
have succeeded. In that case the after history of
the Province of New York must have been greatly
changed. Morgan's opinion is that France must
chiefly ascribe to the Iroquois " The final over-
throw of her magnificent schemes of colonization
in the northern part of America."
From the English the Mohawks, before leaving
their native valley in 1776, had received a pledge
that when the war was ended their condition would
be made as good as it had been before, and this
pledge had been renewed in 1779. It was only
through the persistent exertions of Brant that the
Mohawks at last secured fulfilment of the pledge.
Brant asked for lands in Canada on the northern
3i8
INDIANS AFTER THE WAR
shore of Lake Ontario, but was induced to accept
another tract on Grand River, a Canadian stream
flowing into Lake Erie near its eastern end. He
stipulated for " six miles on each side of the river
from the mouth to its source," the length of the
stream being about ioo miles. It was a fair and
fertile territory, and here still live many Mohawks,
possessed of 50,000 acres — all that are left of the
original 300,000.
In the legislature of New York, meanwhile, there
had been some disposition to expel the Iroquois
from all the territory of the State, where by the laws
of war their lands had been forfeited. It was largely
due to Washington that these severe measures were
not undertaken. He advocated a liberal and hu-
mane policy, and reb&iv_ed^ from the Indians a singu-
lar reward. At his death they mourned him as a
benefactor, admitting him to a place in their own
Heaven, an honor conferred on him alone among
white men, and including a special residence as pre-
pared for him by the Great Spirit. Here Wash-
ington was supposed to dwell in a spacious mansion
surrounded by attractive gardens and securely forti-
fied. Clad in a military uniform he was believed to
enjoy perfect felicity.
In 1785 the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were con-
firmed in possession of certain New York lands in-
cluding those bounded by the Unadilla, Chenango,
and Susquehanna rivers, but in 1788 the State of
New York acquired that territory from them by pur-
chase. Descendants of some of the other Iroquois
still live on reservation in Central and Western New
York. Besides the Mohawks who settled in the
Grand River valley some others live in Canada at
Caughnawaga, near Montreal, the total number of
3 IQ
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
the Iroquois living in Canada reaching 30,000 ; *
while on land granted in Michigan and the Indian
Territory others have found homes.
Brant, in the interest of the Mohawks, made his
second visit to London at the close of the year 1785,
and there renewed his acquaintance with many Eng-
lish officers with whom he had been associated in the
Revolution. He was cordially received. One of
the officers was General Stewart, son of the Earl of
Bute, with whom in America Brant had slept under
the same tent. Another was Lord Percy, afterward
Duke of Northumberland, with whom he corre-
sponded until his death, and for whom his portrait
was painted. He dined at famous houses and
showed himself quite at home in London drawing-
rooms, clad sometimes in the dress of an English
gentleman, sometimes in a half military and half sav-
age costume. At dinner-tables he sat where were
assembled Fox, Burke, and Sheridan. From Fox
he received the gift of a silver snuff-box. Ladies
remarked upon his mild disposition and the manly
intelligence of his face. He paid a formal visit to
George III. and the royal hand, in the usual way,
was extended for a kiss. Brant declined this oscu-
latory opportunity, holding that his Indian rank
technically made him as good a man as the English
sovereign. Brant had the grace, however, to kiss
the hand of the English queen.
During this visit, a grand ball was given in Brant's
honor. The foreign ambassadors and many lights
of the great social world were present, Brant attend-
ing with his war-paint on. Mistaking the painted
face for a visor, and wishing to examine the visor,
* So stated in London in 1901 by J. O. Brant-Sero, a descendant of
Joseph Brant.
320
BRANT IN LONDON AGAIN
the Turkish minister ventured to touch Brant's nose.
Brant saw his opportunity for sport, and instantly
sprang away from the Turk. Giving a loud war-
whoop, he flashed his shining tomahawk in the air,
to the consternation of everyone who took his con-
duct seriously. Brant was entertained by that dis-
solute Prince of Wales, afterward George IV., whose
chief ambition was to be known as the first gentle-
man of Europe. With the prince Brant was taken
to places which he afterward described as " very
queer for a Prince to go to." Stone narrates these
incidents with obvious pride in his hero.
During Brant's stay in London the question arose
of placing him on half pay, to which he seems to
have had just claim because he had held a captain's
commission. Some difficulty that ensued in regard to
it led to a letter from Brant to one of the king's un-
der secretaries that forcibly illustrates the native dig-
nity and independence of this Mohawk leader :
Sir:
Since I had the pleasure of seeing you last I have been
thinking a great deal about the half pay or pension which
you and I have talked about.
I am really sorry that I ever mentioned such a thing to
you. It was really owing to promises made to me by cer-
tain persons several times during the late war that I should
always be supported by the government at war or peace.
At that time I never asked anybody to make me such a
promise. It was of their own free will.
When I joined the English at the beginning of the war
it was purely on account of my forefathers' engagements
with the King. I always looked upon these engagements
or covenants between the King and the Indian nations as a
sacred thing. Therefore I was not to be frightened by the
threats of the whites at that time. I assure you I had no
321
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
other view in it and this was my real course from the be-
ginning.
However, after this the English gave me pay and a com-
mission from the Commander-in-Chief, which I gladly re-
ceived as a mark of attention, though I never asked for it,
and I believe my trouble and risques were of equal value to
the marks of attention I received; I am sure not too much
in the eyes of the Indians, or I should not have accepted
them, as I should be sorry to raise jealousies. My mean-
ing for mentioning those things to you is because I saw
there was some difficulty on your part how to act on this
head relative to half pay or pension ; and when it does not
seem clear I should be sorry to accept it. Therefore I beg
of you will say no more about it, for was I to get it when
there were doubts about the propriety of it, I should not be
happy. For which reason I think it is best to go without it.
I am now, sir, to beg you will return my best thanks to
government for what they have done for me and am, sir,
your most obedient humble servant, Joseph Brant.*
On his return to Canada Brant established him-
self in a comfortable home near the present town of
Brantford. Here in 1798 he had between thirty
* These London visits of Brant and his grandfather have been recently
recalled in an interesting manner by the presence in London in January,
1901, of a descendant of theirs whose home is in Ontario, Canada — Mr.
J. O. Brant-Sero, a man of position, education, and character, who speaks
our language with the fluency and accent of a cultivated Englishman.
During the war between Great Britain and the Transvaal Republic, Mr.
Brant-Sero, true to the loyalty of his race, offered to volunteer in the
English service, the Six Nations by formal action having expressed their
willingness to send out 300 warriors. The English declined to accept
the service on the ground that only men of European descent were per-
mitted to take part in the war. Mr. Brant-Sero then went to South
Africa, hoping that, through a personal visit, he might get enrolled in
one of the Colonial regiments. After making several attempts, he suc-
ceeded only in obtaining an appointment on the civilian staff of the re-
mount department. Finding it impossible to get into the fighting ranks,
he afterward resigned. On returning to London, Mr. Brant-Sero, in
narrating his South African experiences to a reporter of The Daily News,
remarked that, although in Canada his people "live on a footing of per-
fect equality," in South Africa " there were men who actually refused to
shake hands with me because of my Indian blood,"
322
BRANT'S LIFE IN CANADA
and forty negroes cultivating his land and looking
after his horses. He had reduced them to a state
of complete subjection as slaves. Once more he
turned his attention to translations from the Bible.
His version of the Gospel of Mark was the first of
the gospels ever translated entire into the Mohawk
tongue. Under his supervision and with the patron-
age of the King of England, it was published with
the prayer-book and psalms in Mohawk as a hand-
some volume.
Brant afterward made a journey to Philadelphia
and had an audience with Washington, who was then
president. He met many other distinguished per-
sons, among whom were Aaron Burr, Volney, and
Talleyrand. From Burr he received a letter of in-
troduction to Burr's daughter, Theodosia, who, at
her home in New York, gave a dinner in Brant's
honor, at which were present Bishop Moore and
other eminent men of the city.
In Albany Brant met officers against whom he had
fought in Tryon County, and talked with them of old
and stormy times. During this visit he was informed
that John Wells, son of the late Captain Wells, of
Cherry Valley, had called to see him, determined to
take his life. Brant calmly remarked, " Let him
come in " ; but the young man in the meantime had
been induced to forego his purpose.*
Brant spent the remainder of his days at his home
in Canada. When his sons had grown up they were
sent to Dartmouth College. In a letter to James
Wheelock he expressed a wish that they should be
* John Wells subsequently became an eminent lawyer in New York.
He was associated with Hamilton in the publication of "The Federal-
ist." On his death a beautiful memorial of him in marble, surmounted
by a bust, was erected, and may still be seen inside of St. Paul's Church,
in Broadway.
3*3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
" studiously attended to, not only as to their educa-
tion, but likewise as to their morals in particular."
Again he made reference to his own experience
many years before at Dr. Wheelock's school in
Lebanon, of which Dartmouth was now the large
successor. " For my part," said he, " nothing can
ever efface from my memory the persevering atten-
tion your revered father paid to my education when
I was in the place my sons now are. Though I was
an unprofitable pupil in some respects, yet my worldly
affairs have been much benefited by the instruction I
there received." Brant was liberal with those sons of
his, as is shown in a letter sending ^ioo for them as
" pocket money."
Brant's acquaintance with John Harper continued
long after the war. " You may depend on my in-
fluence," he wrote him in 1804, "with the Ogh-
wagas to do you justice, which I believe is their full
determination whenever it is in their power." Col-
onel Harper was still accustomed to do friendly acts
for the Indians. Thus for thirty years were con-
tinued those relations, begun at Oghwaga in 1777,
when the Indians placed upon Harper's head that
crown of leather wrought with beads.
Brant died in 1807, and lies buried in the Mo-
hawk churchyard near Brantford. During his last
illness he addressed to his adopted nephew these
words : " Have pity on the poor Indians. If you
can get any influence with the great, endeavor to
do them all the good you can." Stone's splendid
eulogy contains the following words : " In letters he
was in advance of some of the generals against whom
he fought ; and even of still greater military chieftains
who have flourished before his day and since. True,
he was ambitious, and so was Caesar. He sought to
3 2 4
BRANT'S CHARACTER
combine many nations under his own dominion,
and so did Napoleon. He ruled over barbarians,
and so did Peter the Great." In the town named
after him, an imposing monument perpetuates the
memory of Brant. In that soil, therefore, sleeps in
his last sleep the most interesting Indian who, in
that eventful eighteenth century, forever linked his
name with the history of Central New York.
Stone is not alone among Brant's eulogists. Will-
iam C. Bryant, of Buffalo, had remarked that the
evidence is incontestible that he was " a great man —
in many respects the most extraordinary his race has
produced since the advent of the white man on this
continent " ; and John Fiske, in one of his later
books, declares that he " was the most remarkable
Indian known to history." Schoolcraft calls him
" the Jephtha of his tribe," and lauds his " firmness
and energy of purpose " as qualities which few among
the American aborigines have ever equalled.
But the best evidence of the man's personal worth
lies in the high respect and friendship which he in-
spired among educated and titled Englishmen, as
shown in many ways and notably in his correspond-
ence. Chesterfield remarked that a private letter
discloses not only the character of the writer, but
that of the person to whom the letter is addressed.
Read in the light of this statement, no one can fail
to see the regard in which Brant was held by the
Duke of Northumberland, at that time the head of
the British peerage, who wrote him the following
letter :
Northumberland House,
Sept. 3rd, 1791.
My dear Joseph :
Colonel Simcoe, who is going out Governor of Upper
Canada, is kind enough to promise to deliver this to you,
3*5
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
with a brace of pistols which I desire you will keep for my
sake. I must particularly recommend the Colonel to you
and the nation. He is a most intimate friend of mine, and
is possessed of every good quality which can recommend
him to your friendship. He is brave, humane, sensible, and
honest. You may safely rely upon whatever he says, for
he will not deceive you. He loves and honors the Indians,
whose noble sentiments so perfectly correspond with his
own. He wishes to live upon the best terms with them,
and as Governor will have it in his power to be of much
service to them. In short, he is worthy to be a Mohawk.
Love him at first for my sake, and you will soon come to
love him for his own.
I was very glad to hear that you had received the rifle
safe which I sent you, and hope it has proved useful to
you. I preserve with great care your picture, which is
hung up in the Duchess's own room.
Continue to me your friendship and esteem, and believe
me ever to be, with the greatest truth,
Your affectionate
Friend and Brother,
Northumberland.*
Colonel Daniel Claus wrote to Brant in 178 1 from
Montreal, a letter containing these words : " We
shall be very happy to see you here. Mrs. Claus
* Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland, had opposed the war, but
when it actually began he offered his services and was in this country in
1775 and 1776 with the rank of Brigadier-General. He led the rein-
forcements which General Gage sent to Lexington in April, 1775, but was
prevented by illness from commanding his regiment at Bunker Hill. He
came to New York with the English army in 1776 and at the action
which reduced Fort Washington, led the column making the first en-
trance into the American lines. Fort George, in that neighborhood, was
named by him. In the same year he succeeded to the barony of Percy
and returned to England. It will be remembered that Brant, on coming
home from England early in 1776, joined the English army on Long Isl-
and, and afterward made his way across the country to the Indians
already assembled at Oghwaga. It was in this period that he seems to
have made the acquaintance of the Duke, who was then known as Lord
Percy.
326
BRANT'S CHARACTER
and all friends are well here and salute you heartily ;
also your sisters and daughters ; the others here are
well, and desire their love and duty. God bless and
prosper you."
Brant has deserved no large part of that load of
obloquy which on this frontier for many years rested
upon his name. He was better than the Tories
under whose guidance he served, and far better than
most Indian chiefs of his time. There was much in
the man that was kindly and humane. If he loved
war, this was because he loved his friends and his
home still more. He fought in battle with the vigor
and skill of a savage, but we are to remember that
he fought where honor called him. To the story of
his life peculiar fascination must long be attached, a
large part of which springs from the potent charm
of an open personality. In Brant's character were
joined strength and humanity, genius for war and
that unfamiliar quality in a Mohawk savage, bon-
hommie.
327
PART VIII
The Restoration
of the
Frontier
1782-1800
I
Return of the
Former Settlers
1782-1788
WITH the close of the war, the way lay-
open for repeopling these valleys. On
the Mohawk and Schoharie, some signs
of civilization had survived. Those valleys had
never been entirely depopulated. War had de-
spoiled them much later than the Susquehanna.
Their crowning misfortunes were among the last
incidents of the conflict and they had never been
actually abandoned. The return of peace saw their
surviving male adults returning to their former
homes from disbanded regiments, or removing to
the Susquehanna, and their old men, women, and
children emerging from block-houses. As Stone
remarks, those valleys " soon smiled through their
tears." New and substantial courage must have
come to these people, as, on the one hand, they
looked into the future, with its splendid promises,
and, on the other, recalled the past with its
old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.
But on the Susquehanna was found a region
entirely desolate. It virtually contained no inhabi-
tants. Nature once more was in full possession of
it. Something perhaps of what had been still
remained, since clearings existed which the forest
33i
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
had not entirely reclaimed. Here and there stood
the remains of log dwellings that might be recon-
structed and made habitable. On the upper waters,
lay one of the fairest portions of a fair valley, with
fertile lands bordering the Great Island River.
Over these lands and along the surface of this river
it was certain that the warlike Iroquois would roam
no more.
The valley had continued to be a resort of Ind-
ians more or less hostile until the treaty of peace
was signed. Brant is known to have been at Ogh-
waga and Unadilla, and it is also true that wander-
ing companies of Indians were there until a period
long subsequent to the peace ; but these survivals
were few in numbers, and were often Oneidas
friendly to the settlers. Cooper delayed the fare-
well of Leather Stocking to Otsego Lake until 1794,
when he put these words into his hero's mouth:
When I look about me at these hills where I used to
could count sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the
tree tops from the Delaware camps, it raises mournful
thoughts to think that not a red skin is left of them all,
unless it be a drunken vagabond from the Oneidas, or them
Yankee Indians who, they say, be moving up from the
sea shore. Well, well ! The time has come at last and I
must go.
Men born to toil and veterans of war took up
these new tasks in the wilderness. The first to
enter the Susquehanna, came from the Mohawk
and Schoharie. A number arrived between the
surrender of Cornwallis and the conclusion of the
treaty of peace, including Isaac Collier, who entered
by Otsego Lake as early as 1782. Mr. Collier was
of German descent and before the war had been a
33*
WASHINGTON
taxpayer in the Mohawk Valley. He was the
father of Peter Collier. On the Susquehanna he
opened a hotel, at the settlement since called after
him, where pioneers long found food and shel-
ter.
To Cherry Valley in the spring of 1783, returned
Colonel Campbell with his family, to find the set-
tlement in a state of utter desolation. He pro-
ceeded to erect a log-hut, which, a few months later,
sheltered distinguished visitors. In the summer of
this year George Washington ascended the Mohawk
and passed over to the head waters of the Susque-
hanna. In a letter to the Marquis de Chastelleux,
dated in October, he says he " traversed the coun-
try to the eastern branch of the Susquehanna and
viewed the Lake Otsego and the portage between
that lake and the Mohawk River at Canajoharie."
He was accompanied by Governor Clinton, General
Hand and others, and spent a night under Colonel
Campbell's roof. On the following morning, he
went over to the lake. At the Campbell residence,
Auchenbreck, visitors may see to-day the site of an
apple-tree beneath which Washington drank tea.
Governor Clinton remarked to Mrs. Campbell dur-
ing the visit, that her sons would some day make
fine soldiers ; to which she answered that she
" hoped her country never would need their ser-
vices." " I hope so, too," said Washington, " for I
have seen enough of war."
Washington was much impressed by the oppor-
tunity which the valley gave for communication by
water with regions scuth and west. The same con-
clusions seem to have been reached by him that had
been formed by Cadwallader Colden nearly fifty
years before when Surveyor-General of the Prov-
333
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
ince. Washington wrote in the letter, already
quoted from :
Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help
taking more comprehensive and extensive views of the vast
inland navigation of these United States, from maps and the
information of others, and could not but be struck with the
immense diffusion and importance of it, and with the good-
ness of that providence which has dealt her favors to us
with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have wis-
dom enough to improve them.
To Middlefield soon returned former settlers, and
to Springfield several of those who had seen their
homes destroyed by Brant, while to Richfield came
the Tunnicliffes, and to Harpersfield in 1783, or
the next year, the Harpers — John, William, Alex-
ander, and Joseph — all but the last named being now
military officers, and the women of the family com-
ing from Windsor, Conn.
Matthew Cully, in 1783, returned to his lands at
the mouth of the Cherry Valley Creek. Below
Portlandville in 1788 he built a grist-mill, and four
years later his brother built a saw-mill. Following
the Cullys in 1784 came Colonel John Moore, a
family named Ford, and then Abraham and Jacob
Beals.
A contemporary of Peter Collier was John Van
Der Werker, who settled on the river near Oneonta
Village and built a grist-mill. Van Der Werker had
been in the valley with Henry Scramling before the
war, and with Scramling returned as soon as the
conflict ceased. With Scrawling came his two
brothers, David and George, and their brothers-in-
law, David and John Young. During the war, the
father of the Scramlings had been killed by the Ind-
334
WASHINGTON
ians, and David and George had been in Canada as
captives. David's wife had also been a prisoner.
To Oneonta came Adam Quackenbush and Simeon
Walling. Mr. Walling had gone down the valley
in 1779 with General Clinton, and now took up
lands at the old Indian village since known as the
Slade farm. In Oneonta several others settled about
1786 or later, including Aaron Brink, Baltus Him-
mel north of the village, and Abraham Houghtal-
ing and Peter Schwartz in the north part of the
town.
Still further down the river, in what is now Otego,
the Ogdens arrived to take up their old lands. One
of the family had been made a prisoner by Brant at
the siege of Fort Schuyler, and carried to Canada.
Traces of Teutonic influence may be found else-
where on the Susquehanna. Perhaps one exists in
Unadilla in the name of an old mill-race called the
Binnekill.* But so much of it as ever existed in
Unadilla was soon extinguished by stronger influ-
ences from Connecticut. Teutonic folks and the
Yankees did not live at peace in those pioneer times.
Theirs was a state, sometimes of war, sometimes of
armed neutrality ; but seldom one of peace.f
The Johnstons of Sidney, in May, 1784, set out
to return from their temporary home in Florida,
Montgomery County. In 1783 the father, the
Rev. William Johnston, had delivered a sermon on
the conclusion of the treaty of peace, and not long
afterward breathed his last. Mr. Johnston, after
the massacre of Cherry Valley, had gone to Sche-
nectady, where he remained two years and then went
* From binnen, meaning inner, and kill, a creek.
t Out of this condition seems to have grown an early colloquial name
for what is now the large and thriving town of Oneonta — the largest
town in the valley above Binghamton — Klipnockie.
335
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to Florida. With the widow came back Witter and
Hugh Johnston, and the daughters.
It is probable that others came with them, includ-
ing David McMaster, whose life the Johnstons had
saved at Cherry Valley. On the farm owned in late
years by Mr. Deyo the Johnstons spent their first
season, reluctant to occupy the lands across the river
where it is probable that Indians were still living.
On crossing to their old home the next season, they
built a log-house on Brant Hill and lived there until
they erected a frame dwelling.
On the Unadilla River settled Jonathan Spencer.
He had served in the war, and came from Florida
bringing with him a son named Orange, who was a
surveyor. His household goods were transported
by boat from the lake or from Cherry Valley to a
farm about one mile below Rockdale. He had six
other sons, and his descendants have continued to
be numerous in the Susquehanna valley. His wife
long survived him. Mr. Rogers well remembered
sitting at her knee in boyhood to hear stirring tales
of war in the Mohawk Valley. At Fort Plain she
had herself stood guard in a block-house while the
men were away on duty.
33^
II
Men Who Came
from
New England
1783-1800
ON the old frontier, as on those lands west-
ward from the Fort Stanwix line now first
open to settlement, a new race was about to
plant homes. They were of English ancestry, but
had had a far older racial experience in the new
world than the Palatines and Scotch-Irish. They
came from New England and by them, in the years
immediately following the war, was poured forth a
tide of migration that completely dominated for long
years afterward Central and Western New York.
They almost completely submerged the Palatines
and Scotch-Irish. Leadership was, in fact, practi-
cally wrested by them from those older pioneers.
Under the act of 1779, attainting of treason, and
declaring forfeit the lands of settlers who had taken
up arms against the colonies, vast tracts on the fron-
tier came to state ownership — for example, almost
the entire valley of the Charlotte and extensive hold-
ings along the Mohawk. Out of these tracts and
many others, the New Englanders made their pur-
chases. One of the sufferers from that act was Col-
onel John Butler, and another Colonel Guy John-
son, who at German Flatts had held title to a,ooo
acres ; but greater losers still were the children of
337
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Sir William Johnson, and notably Sir John, whose
inherited domain was the largest ever held in the
Province by any one man except his father and pos-
sibly one or two of the Dutch patroons. These suf-
ferers were mostly the Scotch Highlanders and Irish
who had fled to Canada in 1775, the act of forfeiture
affecting few, if any, of the Palatines or Scotch-Irish,
who almost to a man had been patriots.
Many of the pioneers from New England had
served in the Revolution. Some had gone up the
Mohawk with Benedict Arnold to Fort Schuyler in
1777; others were at Cherry Valley with Colonel
Alden ; others went down the Susquehanna with
General Clinton, and thence to the fertile lands of
the Genesee. Most notable of all the impressions
they had carried home were impressions of the fer-
tility of this New York soil and the sparsity of its
population. This was strikingly true of the Gene-
see country, where the ears of corn they had plucked
from extensive fields cultivated by Indians awakened
astonishment that still survived. Accordingly the
history of the re-peopling of this frontier is mainly
a history of the migration poured into it from
Massachusetts and Connecticut, by a people whom
Professor Lounsbury has eulogized as " born lev-
ellers of the forest, the greatest wielders of the axe
the world has ever known." They brought not
only skill with the axe, but certain arts and refine-
ments in domestic life before unknown to the fron-
tier, and with those arts a spirit of enterprise and in-
vention, with an initiatory energy which carried their
own fortunes far and which, more perhaps than all
other human forces, have made the central and west-
ern parts of New York State what they now are.
Owing to delays in concluding the Treaty of
33*
MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND
Peace, the tide of immigration from New England
did not set in until the spring and summer of 1784.*
Perhaps the earliest man who arrived in the Mo-
hawk Valley from Connecticut was Hugh White,
founder of Whitestown, which lies a few miles west
of Utica. He came in the spring of 1784, as the
leader of a conquering band that was soon to fol-
low him. He ascended the Mohawk in a bateau,
passing on the way many abandoned farms with
buildings reduced to masses of charred logs and
timbers, and with isolated chimneys standing black
and grim against northern and southern skies. In
the following year, men from Connecticut planted a
settlement within gunshot of Fort Schuyler, and
between that year and the beginning of the new
century so great was the influx to the German Flatts
neighborhood that 10,000 settlers are believed to
have arrived in Herkimer County alone. Many of
these were from Western Massachusetts, where they
had found a new impulse to migration from Shays's
Rebellion, in which they had taken part, and in the
consequences of the suppression of which they had
had an unhappy share.
But it was Connecticut that made the largest con-
tribution to the settlement of the frontier. As Vir-
ginia was the mother of Presidents, so has Connec-
ticut been a mother of States. From the Hudson
River westward to the Pacific through the line of
Northern States, there is hardly a town, says Trum-
bull, " in which persons may not be found whose
ancestral roots dip back into Hartford County." In
the New York Constitutional Convention of 1821,
*Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1 781, but the treaty was not
signed until September 3, 1783; nor was New York evacuated by the
British until November 25, 1783. The treaty was finally ratified by
Congress on June 4, 1784.
339
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
a majority of the 117 members were either born in
Connecticut or were sons of fathers who were born
there. Calhoun declared that, at one time the mem-
bers of Congress who were either born or reared in
Connecticut lacked but five of a majority of that
body. The single town of Litchfield nearly forty
years ago had given birth to 13 United States Sen-
ators, 11 members of Congress from New York, 15
State supreme court judges, 9 presidents of colleges,
18 other college professors, and 11 governors and
lieutenant-governors of States.
Aside from the southern and southwestern parts
of the State, about all the early settlements in Con-
necticut sprang from the original river towns of
Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, which have
been happily described as " strictly speaking, the
original cradle of empire." Family names familiar
in the Mohawk and Susquehanna valleys from the
earliest times, may be found in the records of those
Hartford county towns. All the New England
States found representation, but the showing Con-
necticut makes far surpasses that of the other
States.
The beginning of New England interest in the
Susquehanna we must assign to the coming of John
Sergeant and Elihu Spencer, who, as missionaries,
arrived before 1750. Mr. Spencer was a native of
Windsor and Gideon Hawley, who followed him,
was also from Connecticut. After the visits of these
men, no one in New England had his eyes more
intently fixed on this valley than Dr. Wheelock, of
Lebanon, to whom the labors of both these men had
become well known. Dr. Wheelock's Indian school
departed from Lebanon in 1770, but it had been
long enough settled there to arouse an interest in
340
MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND
this valley in the minds of boys who as men became
Susquehanna pioneers.
When John Harper, with Joseph Brant and other
Indian boys, attended that school, Sluman Wattles,
the Ouleout pioneer, was a lad living in Lebanon,
eight or ten years of age, casting more than one eager
glance at those dusky children of the western forest
lands. In the same period, Daniel Bissell,the Una-
dilla pioneer, was a boy in Lebanon, twelve or four-
teen years of age. He likewise saw these Indian
boys, and must have known them well. The same
fact is true of Nathaniel Wattles, also from Lebanon,
and of James Hughston, his cousin, both of whom
came to the Ouleout. It will be remembered that,
during the Revolution, the wives and daughters of
the Harpers of Harpersfield returned to East Wind-
sor — the place from which the Harpers emigrated
before the Revolution — where they remained until
the war closed, when they went again to the settle-
ment on the Charlotte. When Sluman Wattles
came to the Ouleout, he had an interest in lands
which John and Alexander Harper had purchased
of the Indians before the Revolution. It is interest-
ing further to recall that Jonathan Edwards, largely
through whose influence Gideon Hawley had been
sent into the valley, was a native of Windsor. Into
this same part of Connecticut, early in the eigh-
teenth century before the settlement of Cherry Val-
ley, had come many Scotch-Irish.
West of the Fort Stanwix line the Susquehanna
Valley was invaded by many men from Vermont
who were among the " sufferers " in that State — men
whose titles to real estate had been lost in the settle-
ment of the disputed New Hampshire Grants, and
to whom as compensation were given lands in the
34*
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Susquehanna Valley which New York had purchased
from the Oneidas. One payment made to Oneidas
and Tuscaroras was $11,500, and another to Onei-
das was $5,500, with an annuity of $600 forever.
Israel Smith, who settled in Sidney in 1790 on
lands west of the Johnston farm, came from Brat-
tleboro and received from the State 640 acres. An-
other " sufferer " who settled on a large tract in
Bainbridge was Colonel Timothy Church. He had
had correspondence with Governor Clinton during
the Revolution on public affairs, and had taken part
in the battle of Bennington. His ancestral line
ran back to Hartford County. Ransom Hunt, of
Otego, was also from Vermont, although he did
not acquire title from the State, his tract comprising
1,800 acres. George Mumford, who came to the
mouth of Cherry Valley Creek with his wife, four
sons and five daughters, was from Bennington.
But the main fact is that the upper Susquehanna
lands were more indebted to Connecticut than to
any other part of the country. From Hebron, a
town near Lebanon, men came to Franklin ; to
Unadilla from Hebron the four brothers Cone, and
long after them their nephew, Salmon G. Cone ; and
to Delhi a man who was to reach much eminence in
the State, Erastus Root. To Laurens from Wind-
sor, in 1790, came Jacob Butts; to Unadilla from
North Bolton Samuel Rogers and his wife, natives
of East Windsor ; to Cherry Valley from Chatham,
Dr. Joseph White ; to Sidney from Hartford
County, Levi Baxter ; to Sidney from Ashford, in
1798, John Avery; to Unadilla from Danbury,
William Wilmot ; to Morris, in 1792, from Salis-
bury, Jonathan Moore ; to Unadilla from Norwalk,
Samuel Betts ; to a farm through which runs the
342
MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND
line between Unadilla and Butternuts, in 1810, from
Fairfield County, the father of the late Judge Heze-
kiah Sturges ; to Unadilla from New Milford, in
1800, Isaac Hayes and Curtis Noble; to Otego
from Roxbury, in 1809, David Weller.
From various parts of Connecticut came others —
Timothy Beach to the Ouleout, in 1784; Amos
Preston and Nathan Newell to Laurens, in 1789;
Jared Goodyear to Milford ; William Rose to
Binghamton, in 1787; Peter Bradley and Gould
Bacon to Sidney ; Captain Abel de Forest to Ed-
meston, in 1795, and many settlers to Cooperstown
before the century closed. The reader who bears
in mind how the most of the Connecticut towns
here named were settled from the original river
towns, will see the intimate relation of this move-
ment of pioneers to Otsego County.
A reminder of this debt that will last longer than
the names of individuals is found in the names of
Otsego towns. Plainfield is a town in Windham
County ; Middlefield a town in Middlesex County,
while New London County has a town named Lis-
bon and one named Exeter. West of the Unadilla
River the fact is again to be observed in New Ber-
lin, named from Berlin in Hartford County, and in
Guilford and Norwich, ancient and well-known Con-
necticut names. More obvious still is the name of
Windsor, which supplanted the historic name of
Oghwaga* — and so might the list be extended until
it became wearisome.
To Richfield in 1790 came the father of Levi
Beardsley, with his wife, two brothers, and several
children, including Levi, who was then four years
* Windsor was settled almost entirely from New England. In 1 79 1
Lincklaen found there thirty families embracing about 300 souls.
343
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
old. Mr. Beardsley had purchased a tract of land
of Mr. Banyar for $1.25 per acre, and came from
Rensselaer County by the Mohawk Valley and the
Continental road. The family settled temporarily
on the Herkimer farm, at the foot of Schuyler's
Lake, where were still standing " two small log-
houses, more properly huts." This farm was re-
tained for two years " for the common benefit of the
colony to furnish hay and grain till we could clear
the land and raise crops in Richfield."
Many persons followed this family into the coun-
try, looking for lands, and the Beardsley homes be-
came " places of rendezvous for all comers." They
generally " slept on the floor before the fire on straw
beds, for we had scarcely a spare one of other de-
scription at that time." The Beardsleys finally set-
tled on the purchase four miles west of Richfield
Springs, where the Tunnicliffe family had now a
second time taken up a home. One of the Tunni-
cliffes built a saw-mill in 1791, and in 1792 a grist-
mill ; Judge Jedediah Peck being the millwright, an
occupation to which he added those of preacher and
politician.
Meanwhile to Springfield, from the East, came
Captain Samuel Crafts, and, about 1795, Matthew
Halsey, who had taken part in the battle of Long
Island. He was from Bridgehampton, Long
Island, where his family had been settled for 150
years. In the town of Maryland settled Amos
Spencer, who with his father had served in the Ninth
New York militia regiment, recruited from Albany
County. The family seems to have come originally
from Connecticut, but afterward lived in Hillsdale,
Mass. Descendants settled on the Unadilla River
near Sidney, and later went to Unadilla Village.
344
MEN FROM NEW ENGLAND
On the Susquehanna, just east of the mouth of
the Unadilla, as early as 1787 and probably before
that year, land had been occupied by David Baits on
what was long known as the Bundy farm. It is
recorded of David Baits, that in the year 1787,
when the settlement was threatened with famine, he
brought a boat-load of flour up the river from North-
ampton, Pa. He had served in the war and bore
the title of captain. He often held office in the
town where he lived.
Gould Bacon settled on Stowell's Island below
Afton. His name appears on the official list of
those to whom New York State in 1788 gave com-
pensation for losses in the Vermont disputes.*
Stowell's Island had at least one other settler in
1786. This was Elnathan Bush, who descended the
Susquehanna River in a canoe from Cooperstown.
Mr. Bush afterward lived in Bainbridge. On the
occasion of a freshet, in or about 1786, Mr. Bacon's
farm was overflown and he retreated to the top of
a tree. It was two or three days before the water re-
ceded. He had taken with him into the tree a
satchel filled with provisions, but through accident
he lost hold of his source of supplies and they went
the way of all other things, down the stream. In
the hunger that ensued, he subsisted on a raw pump-
kin, caught from the flood as it passed along his
way. Mr. Bacon afterward came to the Unadilla
River, and lived on land since known as the Miller
farm. He died a bachelor and his tombstone
records that,
He toiled for heirs he knew not whom
And straight was seen no more.
* Another form of compensation was actual money. Out of a fund of
$30,000 Gouldsborough Banyar received $7 212.
345
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
The rapidity with which lands on the Susque-
hanna were thus occupied is a striking illustration of
the volume of immigration which set in all over the
frontier and west of it as soon as the war closed. By
1820 Otsego County had a population of 44,800,
nearly as large a population as it has ever had since.
346
Ill
Pioneers by Way of
Wattles's Ferry
WHEN in the summer of 1784, Tim-
othy Beach reached the Scotch Settlement
at the mouth of the Ouleout he found five
families living within that neighborhood. One was
the family of Nathaniel Wattles, and another was
named Herrick. The probability is that Nathaniel
and Sluman Wattles were the first to start that
stream of Connecticut migration which was to pour
its tide across the hills from the Hudson at Catskill
to the Susquehanna at Wattles's Ferry for the
next generation. It was from Nathaniel, however,
that this ferry got its name. He lived there for
several years, and became an important factor in the
settlement of all the country round about. He
opened roads and established a hotel, and in 1797
was elected a member of the Assembly, but soon after
reaching Albany he suddenly died. James Bacon
of Franklin, who preached his funeral sermon eight
days later, said of his pioneer work —
He underwent many hardships in making roads and other
improvements for the benefit of a new country, and broke
the way for a large settlement. He came with a small in-
terest in this country, and by honest industry accumulated
a good interest and brought up, so far, nine children, the
oldest of which is twenty-four and the youngest about 2
years. We cannot ascertain the advantages this benevolent
man was to this western country in clearing roads and by his
industry bringing many into these parts and feeding the poor.
347
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Sluman Wattles, afterward county judge, settled
on the Ouleout in the town of Franklin.* His im-
mediate purpose in coming into the valley in 1784,
was to survey and lay out in lots a large tract of
land that extended from a line near the Susquehanna
— probably the Wallace Patent line — southward to
the Delaware. It was known as the Livingston
patent. He had some interest in the tract at that
time, and afterward became part owner of it. It
was a portion of a tract which Colonel John and
Captain Alexander Harper had purchased of the
Indians before the war, and was afterward owned
by a company including Peter Van Brugh Livings-
ton, and one or both of the Harpers.
Judge Wattles and the Harpers had been ac-
quainted in Connecticut, Windsor and Lebanon
being neighboring towns. Each was of Scotch-
Irish descent. As Harper had lived with men of
that stock in Cherry Valley, so had Mr. Wattles,
before coming to the Ouleout, lived with Scotch-
Irish at a settlement near Bloomville on the Dela-
ware. Mr. Wattles's wife was Scotch and a mem-
ber of his family was married to a man in Cherry
Valley. While it therefore is true that the com-
ing of these men marked the beginning of the Con-
necticut stream to Wattles's Ferry, their coming was
an outcome of influences exerted once more by that
Scotch-Irish people who first planted settlements in
the Susquehanna Valley.
While engaged in making the survey, Mr. Wat-
tles selected a site for his home in Franklin. He
* Franklin was named after William Franklin, the natural son of Ben-
jamin Franklin, who owned land in what is now that town. He was
one of the colonial governors of New Jersey, and his father's only son.
He became a Tory in the Revolution and thus embittered the old age of
his father.
348
< "5
2 $
WATTLES'S FERRY
erected a log house with an elm-bark roof, and
brought his family from Bloomville in 1785. Be-
sides his wife he had three children, his brother John
carrying one of the children in his arms. The house-
hold goods were transported on the backs of horses,
and at night they camped out in the open woods,
reaching the Ouleout on the following day.
Indians still dwelt along this stream, and made
claims to the judge's land. But a council soon
resulted in an agreement by which his title was ac-
knowledged after the Indians had received several
presents, including a barrel of rum. For six months
Mrs. Wattles never saw any white man except her
husband and his brother. Wolves were numerous
in the forest, and their frequent howling made the
nights extremely uncomfortable.
About 1 800 Judge Wattles sold his farm, and for
twenty-five years afterward lived in East Sidney.
He lies buried there in a rural cemetery. As a
magistrate he acted for a large territory, and when
Delaware County was organized became county
judge. Standing at his grave in the autumn of
1 891, a thought arose which remains potent still.
It was that when Sluman Wattles died, he took a
man's life along with him.
Not long after the arrival of Nathaniel Wattles,
James Hughston, also of Lebanon, followed in his
steps and settled on a farm near the bridge that
crosses the Ouleout, just above its mouth. His
wife came on horseback, with a bed and other arti-
cles strapped to a horse behind her. For her first
child she utilized a piece of a hollow tree, or a sap
trough, as a cradle. Mr. Hughston served as a
magistrate in Sidney for about forty years. He was
also supervisor for several terms, and was once elected
349
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to the Legislature. He was the father of Jonas A.
Hughston,* and died in 1 846. Later settlements
along the Ouleout were made by Stephen Dewey,
who came in 1797, Captain Oliver Gager, Nathaniel
Wolcott, and Josiah Thatcher.
Timothy Beach before coming to the valley had
settled on a farm in Connecticut, after giving up a
life at sea, during which he had once been ship-
wrecked and had fallen among pirates. He set out
for the Susquehanna with a son twelve years of age,
leaving the Hudson at Catskill, where a few families
were living. He crossed the wilderness to the Sus-
quehanna, the distance nearly 100 miles, and had a
half-breed Indian for his guide.
From Cairo Mr. Beach followed the Potawa trail
on horseback through " a wilderness of the most
hideous description," tenanted by deer, panthers, and
wolves, with which they had more than one encoun-
ter. At last the travellers reached the Susquehanna,
where Nathaniel Wattles, says Priest, " kept a skiff
for the accommodation of those who wished to cross
and recross." They started down the river and on
reaching a point near the site of Bainbridge, Mr.
Beach had a dream in which his father warned him
against going further. His intention had been to
settle in Oghwaga, but he concluded now to return
to the Ferry.
Mr. Beach had a considerable sum of money on
his person, and his son had unguardedly made this
fact known to the Indian guide. Other Indians, in
consequence, had now appeared on the shore. The
guide gave a loud outcry, causing them to rush into
the water toward Mr. Beach's boat. Mr. Beach
* Member of Congress in 1855-1856, and afterward United States
Marshal at Shanghai, China, where he died in 1862.
35°
WATTLES'S FERRY
met them in a friendly way and gave them a keg of
rum, with which they went ashore, where they were
soon reduced to a state of unconsciousness. Under
cover of a terrific thunderstorm, Mr. Beach got safely
away. By daybreak he and his son had pushed the
boat up the stream to the mouth of Carr's Creek.
From this point they proceeded on foot through the
dripping forest, and secured the aid of Mr. Wattles
in bringing the boat over the remaining distance.
At the Ferry Mr. Beach met Richard and Daniel
Ogden, who were making a tour of exploration, and
decided to settle at that place. Selecting some land
he returned to Connecticut, travelling on horseback
through the woods with his boy behind him. In
November he began his return journey to Wattles's
Ferry with his family, choosing the route by the Con-
tinental road and Otsego Lake. They camped one
night on the site of Cooperstown, and at the mouth
of Cherry Valley Creek met a party of Indians on
their way to hunting grounds. When they reached
their destination, they " discovered the remnants of
a few log-houses tumbled to ruins, said to have been
the habitations of a few Scotch settlers who had pene-
trated the wilderness before the revolution."
The trees were now bare of leaves, late autumn
having set in. " Exactly opposite this situation,"
says Priest, in his narrative, which is given as Beach's
own story, "stood a lofty mountain, exceedingly
steep and thickly timbered with evergreen pines, the
haunt of panthers, bears and wolves, while at its
base meandered the Susquehanna." Around the
few log -houses were small clearings with sugar-
maples plentiful in the adjacent forest. In one of
the houses, signs of occupation were seen. A half
loaf of bread, baked from pounded corn, was lying on
3S 1
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
a table made from a split log, while near the door
stood the stump of a tree that had been hollowed
out at the top for use in pounding corn with a pes-
tle. Soon the occupants returned. They were
white men, hunters, and had a deer, which Mr. Beach
and his family were invited to share with them. In
one of the other log-huts was found the skeleton of
a man named Skillings, who had been killed by the
Indians.
The second year after his arrival, Mr. Beach
found near the river a large chest filled with various
domestic articles, including three linen \ spinning
wheels and two flax hatchels, which had been hidden
by former settlers. Priest says that much ironware
had been buried " at the upper end of Unadilla
Village near the water's edge." Mr. Beach met with
an untimely fate. The third year after he arrived
he was conveying a man with a blacksmith's kit of
tools down the river in a canoe, during high water,
and when near the place where his father had ap-
peared to him in a dream on his first visit, the canoe
was upset and he was drowned. His body was
found some twenty miles further down the stream
and buried five miles below the site of Binghamton.
By this time, a considerable increase had been made
in the population of the valley. Mills had been
erected, schools started, and doctors and merchants
had arrived.
Mr. Beach came during the same year that the
Johnstons returned. Of the five families he found
none had been on the ground more than a few months.
The land he took up was long afterward known
as the John M. Betts farm. He had a brother
named Ebenezer, who was one of the first settlers in
the woods back of Catskill — " a man," says Priest,
35 2
WATTLES'S FERRY
" of great activity and benevolence of nature like his
brother." Although Timothy came to the Susque-
hanna from Weston, Conn., his family was an an-
cient one in Stratford. Descendants still live in
Franklin and Walton. A son was William Beach,
known familiarly as " Pump " Beach, who led a
nomadic sort of life as a pedler, and writer of rude
verse.
At Wattles's Ferry stood a hotel and perhaps a
store, the usual pioneer promises that a town would
grow up. But other men soon arrived, by whom it
was determined that the village for this neighbor-
hood should lie on the other side of the river. Nat-
ure, indeed, aided them, for there was found a
stream flowing into the Susquehanna which pro-
vided power for mills, the stream called Martin
Brook. The men who founded this settlement
across the river, that was to take the name of Una-
dilla Village, one of the most beautiful of smaller
villages in that part of the country, were from Con-
necticut. Eminent among them were Daniel Bis-
sell, Guido L. Bissell, Solomon Martin, and Gurdon
Huntington, some of whom arrived as early as
1790.
Each of these men, in a different way, was a fine
example of the New England pioneer who abandoned
the comforts of his native locality and went westward
to subdue forests and found thriving villages. Here
at Unadilla they purchased large tracts of land, built
houses, grist and saw mills, opened a hotel, started
a store, and erected a school-house. The house
which Gurdon Huntington built still stands in the
centre of the village in its original condition, and on
its original site, the oldest structure in all that neigh-
borhood.
353
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Ten years after these men came, an old primitive
road to Catskill was converted into a turnpike. The
tide of immigration then set in with new vigor. Two
important men who came from Connecticut in 1800
were Isaac Hayes and Curtis Noble. They became
frontier merchants, large minded, enterprising, and
popular, and in the course of a few years were mas-
ters of an extensive trade up and down the valley,
and embracing the hill-country to the north and
south. A kind of flat-bottom boat called an ark
conveyed to the Chesapeake the produce of the
country, and from New York, over the turnpike,
they brought into the valley such articles in general
use as the pioneers could not themselves produce.
Four years later came Stephen Benton from Sheffield,
Mass. He opened another store and became a
large factor in frontier life. Next arrived from
Chester, Conn., Sherman Page, a lawyer who rose
to local eminence as a judge and twice went to Con-
gress.
Once the stream to Wattles's Ferry had set in, it
flowed strong and full. Trails and marked trees
were at first the only guides across from Catskill,
but each pioneer had done something to cut away
the brush and mark out the better paths. No wagon,
however, penetrated as far as the ferry until 1787.
When the pioneer bound for places further west had
reached the river, the remaining distance proved
less difficult, for here he could secure a " battoe."
Colonel William Rose, the pioneer of Binghamton,
came by this route. Before him, Joseph Leonard
had made the first white settlement in Bingham-
ton, coming up from the Wyoming Valley ; but
Colonel Rose followed him two weeks later, taking
the wilderness route to Wattles's Ferry. Indians
354
WATTLES'S FERRY
were often seen by him on his journey down the
river.
In the same year, came the family of Mr. Whit-
ney, founder of Whitney's Point, who has left a
record of the settlements he observed along the way.
Thirteen miles out from Catskill were the two fami-
lies of Joseph Shaw and Captain Trowbridge, both
of whom afterward went on to Binghamton. Ten
miles further on they found a single white man.
From thence to Windham they passed one or two
families. Another thirteen miles brought them to
the home of two brothers, and three miles further
to the home of Mr. Moore. Harpersfield, in which
were dwelling five or six families, lay twenty miles
beyond this point. In Franklin they found a small
settlement, and between the Ouleout and the mouth
of the Unadilla a few families.
Only an Indian trail existed westward from this
point. The Whitneys had come into the country
with a wagon as far as the ferry, and were the first
persons who attempted the use of one in this wilder-
ness. It was not until the winter of 1788 that a
sleigh could be drawn as far down the river as Bing-
hamton. Until 1790, settlers at Binghamton came
to Wattles's Ferry to get their corn ground. The
mill at East Sidney, built by Abraham Fuller, early
in the war, or just before it, owned later in the cen-
tury by Silas Bennett, and afterward called Dibble's
Mills, long supplied patrons from very distant places.
Early settlers in Tioga County came in 1791 on
foot to Wattles's Ferry from Stockbridge, Mass., with
packs on their backs. Owego was settled in 1786
by a man who entered from Otsego Lake. Settlers
on the Genesee often arrived by Wattles's Ferry.
One of the Binghamton pioneers was a man named
355
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Dickinson, who brought with him a boy destined to
distinction as Daniel S. Dickinson. It would be
easy to multiply instances of men, the founders of
large and flourishing towns in Southern and Western
New York, who penetrated the wilderness by the
highway that had Wattles's Ferry for the terminus
of travel by foot or horse and the beginning of
travel by boat.
3$6
IV
William Cooper,
of
Cooperstown
1785
WILLIAM COOPER, the father of the
novelist, wishing to learn the boundaries
of lands in which he had an interest, came
to Otsego Lake in 1785, accompanied by a party of
surveyors. These lands were those which George
Croghan had secured in 1768, as compensation for
lands lost elsewhere under the Treaty of Fort
Stanwix. Croghan had mortgaged them to William
Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin, and in default
of payment judgments of foreclosure had been ob-
tained against him. The title by various deeds of
assignment afterward passed to Mr. Cooper and
Andrew Craig, both of Burlington, N. J.
Mr. Cooper arrived in the autumn by way of
Cherry Valley, and obtained his first sight of the
lake, which his son was to celebrate as Glimmerglass,
from the top of a tree on the hill east of Coopers-
town known as Mt. Vision. In the following spring
he induced several families to settle on his land. One
of these was Israel Guild, and another was John
Miller. William Ellison and a widow named John-
son were among others who soon came. Mr.
Cooper brought his wife into the country for a visit
in 1787. He drove in a chaise from the Mohawk
357
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to the head of the lake, and went down the lake in
a canoe. Mrs. Johnson erected a frame house in
1786, which was used as a hotel. In 1786 William
Abbott arrived, and then James White.
, By the summer of 1787, the most of the Cooper
lands about the lake had been taken up, many of
the settlers coming from Connecticut. Mr. Cooper
built a house for himself in 1789, and in October,
1790, brought his family into the country, the house-
hold, including the servants, numbering fifteen, and
the youngest member of it an infant destined to wide
literary fame.* The settlement in 1790 is estimated
to have embraced thirty-five other inhabitants, and
by 1 79 1 to have had twenty houses and stores, with
100 inhabitants. Richard R. Smith, son of Richard
Smith, of the Otego patent, in the winter of 1789-
1790, opened the first store. A court-house and
jail had been built in 1791. Mr. Smith was the
first sheriff of the county. From his father, in 1793,
he acquired title to a tract of land on the lake, the
same being a part of the Croghan patent. Feni-
more Cooper says the settlement in 1795 na< ^ ^Y
buildings — an incongruous group from which " rose
the mansion of the judge, towering above all its
neighbors." Fruit-trees, which the Indians had cul-
tivated, were already " beginning to assume the moss
* No authorized life of James Fenimore Cooper has been written, it
having been his wish that none should be. But an excellent substitute,
in the form of a biographical essay or study, has been published by Pro-
fessor Lounsbury, the note in which it is written being seen in its final
passage as follows: "America has had several authors, gifted with
higher spiritual insight than he, with broader and juster views of life,
with finer ideals of literary art, and, above all, with far greater delicacy
of taste. But she counts on the scanty roll of her men of letters, the
name of no one who acted from purer patriotism or loftier principles.
She finds among them all no manlier nature and no more heroic soul."
Cooper died at the age of sixty-two, having spent about thirty-seven
years of his life in Cooperstown.
358
1
Jf. PcUiZ* **" &fa
(From an engraving, bv J. B. Forrest, of a miniature by H. Chilton.)
WILLIAM COOPER
and inclination of age." William Cooper's later
residence, the Elizabethan mansion called Otsego
Hall, was erected in 1797-1799-*
An early storekeeper was a Frenchman named F.
Z. Le Quoy, or Le Quoy de Mersereau, who had
been Governor of the French Island of Martinique
in the West Indies. By a curious coincidence M.
Renouard, who had settled several miles to the west-
ward, one day in 1793 while in Cooperstown, entered
M. Le Quoy's store to purchase some tobacco and,
astonished to find that he knew the proprietor,
walked out in an indignant state of mind. While
Governor of Martinique, Le Quoy, it appears, had
refused to confirm the appointment of Renouard as
port captain of St. Pierre, and an estrangement was
the result.f
Very little has been known by the general public,
of William Cooper. The cyclopaedias have almost
entirely neglected him. That he founded the town
which bears his name ; that he dealt largely in fron-
tier lands ; that he was the first judge of Otsego
County — these facts have been familiar, but they
* R. Monroe Smith erroneously says Richard Smith of the Otego pat-
ent built this mansion, lived in it for some years, called it Smith Hall,
and sold it to Cooper, who "changed the name to Otsego Hall." Smith
Hall stood elsewhere. In a deed from Richard Smith to Samuel Albro
for land in lot 44 of the Otego patent, dated October 3, 1795, and among
Mr. Coad's papers, Smith is described as "of Smith Hall in the township
of Unadilla." Cooperstown, then as now, was in the township of Otsego.
Smith Hall really stood in what is now the town of Laurens, then a part
of the town of Unadilla. The house was still standing a few years ago.
t It is quite possible that Le Quoy had made the acquaintance of a
beautiful daughter of Martinique named Josephine de La Pagerie who,
after her first husband, the Viscount de Beauharnais, had been guillo-
tined in Paris during the Reign of Terror, became the wife of Napoleon
Bonaparte. Josephine was born in Martinique in 1763. She remained
there until 1778, when she went to France. In 1787 she returned to
Martinique, remaining three years, nursing her aged mother. After the
French Revolution began, she returned to Paris ; and Le Quoy, about
the same time, came to New York, whence he went to Cooperstown.
359
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
practically stand alone. William Cooper was more
than a capable frontiersman, who reared a son des-
tined to become famous. He was himself a man of
intelligence, gifted, and cultivated. His mind had
breadth, acuteness, and force. He knew how to
write, and wrote with grace and power.
Near the close of his life, or about 1800, he wrote
a series of letters concerning his work in the settle-
ment of the New York frontier and in 18 10 they
were published in Dublin, where their purpose ap-
pears to have been to promote immigration. From
these letters many things are apparent, and the
most striking is that Judge Cooper was a much
larger factor in the settlement, not only of Otsego
County, but of several other counties in this State
beyond Otsego, than has commonly been supposed.
With an honest pride, he recalled that " there are
40,000 souls now holding land, directly or indirectly,
under me." He had " already settled more acres
than any man in America." Judge Cooper suc-
ceeded in this work when others had failed. His
mind was practical and far-sighted, his spirit liberal.
The man had a genius for bringing men together in
the wilderness and making them prosper.
The reader may also learn from these letters that
Fenimore Cooper's literary gifts came to him by in-
heritance. His father wrote with a command of him-
self, a mastery of expression, a clearness and power
which, if not at all rare in literature, certainly come
to us in these letters as a delightful surprise. Feni-
more Cooper's use of English has been admired,
with qualifications. It is obvious that he was not
a supreme master of style. He was somewhat
wanting in literary feeling. The things admired in
his books have been admired, in spite of certain
360
WILLIAM COOPER
defects, as pure literature. But the novelist's father
had style. There is hardly a line in these letters
that one would blot out or change. They fit the
purpose and hold the attention. Nothing in them
has been carelessly done.
The extracts printed below show something of the
work this pioneer did for Otsego and other counties,
and something of the life amid which Fenimore
Cooper spent his childhood and youth — in that
distant wilderness where Leather Stocking fished in
the waters of the lake, and hunted in the still forests
that covered the Otsego hills.
I began with the disadvantage of a small capital, and the
encumbrance of a large family, and yet I have already set-
tled more acres than any man in America. I am now de-
scending the vale of life, and I must acknowledge that I look
back with self-complacency upon what I have done, and am
proud of having been an instrument in reclaiming such large
and fruitful tracts from the waste of creation. And I ques-
tion whether that sensation is not now a recompense more
grateful to me than all the other profits I have reaped.
In 1785 I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego,
where there existed not an inhabitant, nor any trace of a
road ; I was alone, 300 miles from home, without bread,
meat, or food of any kind ; fire and fishing tackle were my
only means of subsistence. I caught trout in the brook and
roasted them on the ashes. My horse fed on the grass that
grew by the edge of the waters. I laid me down to sleep
in my watch coat, nothing but the melancholy wilderness
around me. In this way I explored the country, formed
my plans of future settlement, and meditated upon the spot
where a place of trade or a village should afterward be es-
tablished.
In May, 1786, I opened the sales of 40,000 acres,
which in sixteen days were all taken up by the poorest
order of men. I soon after established a store, and went
361
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
to live among them, and continued so to do till 1790,
when I brought on my family. For the ensuing four
years the scarcity of provisions was a serious calamity ; the
country was mountainous, and there were neither roads nor
bridges.
But the greatest discouragement was in the extreme
poverty of the people, none of whom had the means of
clearing more than a small spot in the midst of the thick
and lofty woods, so that their grain grew chiefly in the
shade ; their maize did not ripen, their wheat was blasted,
and the little they did gather they had no mill to grind
within twenty miles' distance ; not one in twenty had a
horse, and the way lay through rapid streams, across
swamps, or over bogs. They had neither provisions to
take with them nor money to purchase them ; nor if they
had, were any to be found on their way. If the father of
a family went abroad to labor for bread, it cost him three
times its value before he could bring it home, and all the
business on his farm stood still till his return.
I resided among them, and saw too clearly how bad their
condition was. I erected a storehouse, and during each
Winter filled it with large quantities of grain, purchased in
distant places. I procured from my friend, Henry Drinker,
a credit for a large quantity of sugar kettles ; he also lent
me some potash kettles, which we conveyed as best we
could, sometimes by partial roads on sleighs, and sometimes
over the ice. By this means I established potash works
among the settlers, and made them debtor for their bread
and laboring utensils. I also gave them credit for their
maple sugar and potash, at a price that would bear trans-
portation, and the first year after the adoption of this plan
I collected in one mass 43 hogsheads of sugar and 300
barrels of pot and pearl ash, worth about $9,000. This
kept the people together and at home, and the country soon
assumed a new face.
I had not funds of my own sufficient for the opening of
new roads, but I collected the people at convenient seasons,
and by joint efforts we were able to throw bridges over
3 62
OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN
(The home of J. Fenimore Cooper.)
(Fault by Cooper's father in 1707-90: improved by Cooper in 1 134; destroyed by fire
in 1S53; the grounds now a village park.)
WILLIAM COOPER
the deep streams, and to make, in the cheapest manner,
such roads as suited our then humble purposes.
Of the famine which arose in 1789, and which
Judge Cooper relieved, the following account is
given :
In the Winter preceding the Summer of 1789, grain
rose in Albany to a price before unknown. The demand
swept all the granaries of the Mohawk country. The
number of beginners who depended upon it for their bread
greatly aggravated the evil, and a famine ensued which will
never be forgotten by those who, though now in the enjoy-
ment of ease and comfort, were then afflicted with the
crudest of wants.
In the month of April, I arrived among them with several
loads of provisions, destined for my own use and that of the
laborers I had brought with me for certain necessary opera-
tions; but in a few days all was gone, and there remained
not one pound of salt meat, nor a single biscuit. Many
were reduced to such distress as to live upon the root of
wild leeks ; some more fortunate lived upon milk, whilst
others supported nature by drinking a syrup made of maple
sugar and water. The quantity of leeks they eat had such
an effect upon their breath that they could be smelled at
many paces distant, and when they came together it was
like cattle that had been pastured in a garlic field. A man
of the name of Beets mistaking some poisonous herb for a
leek, eat it, and died in consequence. Judge of my feelings
at this epoch, with 200 families about me and not a morsel
of bread.
A singular event seemed sent by a good Providence to
our relief; it was reported to me that unusual shoals of fish
were seen moving in the clear waters of the Susquehanna.
I went, and was surprised to find that they were herrings.
We made something like a small net, by the interweaving
of twigs, and by this rude and simple contrivance we were
able to take them in thousands. In less than ten days each
3 6 3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
family had an ample supply, with plenty of salt. I also
obtained from the Legislature, then in session, 1,700
bushels of corn. This we packed on horses' backs, and
on our arrival made a distribution among the families, in
proportion to the number of individuals of which each was
composed.
364
V
Jacob Morris
and
Talleyrand's Visit
1787-1795
A FRIEND and associate of William Cooper
was General Jacob Morris, an early pioneer
on the Butternut Creek. He had been an
officer in the Revolution, on the staff of the disgraced
General Charles Lee, and had served at the battle of
Monmouth, where Lee's ignominious retreat nearly-
lost the day. General Morris arrived byway of Ot-
sego Lake in 1787, and on the way fell in with com-
missioners, going out to run the line between New
York and Pennsylvania. In a published letter he
says that, at a place twenty miles down the Susque-
hanna, he met one of the Cullys whom he had en-
gaged to visit the Butternut Creek, and report on his
lands. Here General Morris, for eight gallons of
rum, purchased a bateau, and on June 14th arrived
with his goods at the mouth of the Unadilla River.
The next day he " proceeded up the Unadilla about
eight miles and camped up the Butternut Creek
about two miles that evening, being the first white
man that ever attempted its navigation." General
Morris is, of course, in error here, the valley of the
Butternut Creek having been settled before the
Revolution. His statement gives interesting evi-
3*S
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
dence of the oblivion and desolation which the
Border Wars had spread over the early settlements
on the head waters of the Susquehanna.
General Morris thought the creek a beautiful
stream. " I do solemnly declare," he said, " it is
the handsomest navigable creek I ever laid my eyes
upon." He decided to build a frame house, instead
of a log one, as it would cost very little more, and a
log-house was "eternally out of repair, sinking
upon the door and window frames and always a
dirty house." One of the first frame structures
in the town must have been this house of General
Morris, which a few years ago was still standing.
He settled at the north end of the patent granted
to his father, Lewis, and his uncle, Richard, to in-
demnify them for property destroyed by the British.
This property was on the estate of Morrisania, now
a part of New York City, in the Borough of the
Bronx. Originally the Morris patent, as already
seen, had been granted to Lewis Morris's brother,
Staats Long Morris, but he was now a British officer
and the State was appealed to in 1785 for a new
grant to other members of the family.
Lewis Morris had been one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. At the time of the
signing, a large British force had landed within a
few miles of Morrisania, and a short distance away
ships of war were anchored. More than a thousand
acres of fine wood land are said to have been ruth-
lessly burned. His dwelling was attacked and
injured, the family were driven out, the stock was
seized, and tenants and servants were sent away.
From that time until the evacuation of New York
by the British, the family of Lewis Morris suffered
many hardships from loss of property and the ruin
366
JACOB MORRIS
of their home, and this tract of forest land, known
as the Morris patent, was given as compensation for
their loss.
Jacob Morris was born in Morrisania in 1755.
He therefore made his way to the Unadilla River,
when thirty-three years old. His father had intend-
ed him for a merchant, but on the outbreak of the
war he offered his services to the American cause,
and became an aide-de-camp to General Charles Lee.
With Lee he went south, and is said to have served
with credit at Fort Moultrie and elsewhere before
the disastrous defeat at Monmouth. He was at
one time attached to the staff of General Nathaniel
Greene. When peace ensued, he returned to New
York City, and was elected to the Legislature, serv-
ing as Senator and Assemblyman. When he came
down the Susquehanna, nearly sixty years of life were
before him, during which he was to become one of
the leading men in Otsego County.
Some of his activities were absorbed in what are
known as " the political wars of Otsego Co." Gen-
eral Morris and Judge Cooper were the Federalist
leaders and Jedediah Peck the Democratic leader.
Peck is described by Beardsley as an indomitable
Democrat, a preacher as well as a man of affairs, illit-
erate, but shrewd and wary. As a judge, however,
his conduct was exemplary and honorable.
Wide interest for a time was taken in these " wars."
They grew out of the election for governor in 1792.
John Jay, although chosen on the face of the returns,
was, by the action of the canvassers for Otsego and
two other counties, declared defeated, and George
Clinton took office in his place. Rufus King and
Aaron Burr, the United States senators from New
York, gave opposite opinions of the legal points in-
367
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
volved. Alexander Hamilton corresponded with
King in regard to the dispute, counselling peaceful
submission.
Mrs. Jay in writing a letter to her husband at the
time, referred to the canvassers as having " taken
upon them to give the people a governor of their
election, not the one the people preferred," and
added " people are running in continually, to vent
their vexation. Poor Jacob Morris looks quite dis-
consolate." Jay himself viewed the matter with
philosophy and patriotism. "In a few years," he
wrote to his wife, " we shall all be laid in the dust
and then it will be of more importance to me to have
governed myself than to have governed the state."
Contemporary with Morris as a pioneer, or nearly
so, was Abijah Gilbert, who settled at Gilbertsville.
He kept the first hotel. William Musson opened
the first shoe store, and Abijah Gilbert and Joseph
Shaw, built the first grist mill. Mr. Gilbert came
from Warwickshire, England, that beautiful land in
which lies the famed village of Stratford, where 300
years before a writer of immortal works first opened
his eyes.
Many pioneers on the Susquehanna might have
seen riding on horseback, in the late summer of
1795, a Dutch gentleman and two Frenchmen. One
of the Frenchmen had recently arrived from Eng-
land, and was best known as a former bishop of
Autun — the gentleman whom Carlyle described as
" his irreverent reverence of Autun," and now bet-
ter known as Talleyrand. The other was named
Beaumetz. Talleyrand had left France as one of
that large body of emigres whom the Reign of Ter-
ror forced out of their native land.
On going to England, he had been expelled
368
TALLEYRAND'S VISIT
from the country, and while waiting for his ship at
Falmouth had chanced to meet another famous exile
named Benedict Arnold, who was then under sen-
tence of death. Talleyrand on hearing that Arnold
was an American, though ignorant of his name,
asked him for letters of introduction in America.
Arnold replied : "I am perhaps the only American
who cannot give you letters for his own country.
All the relations I had there are broken off. I must
never return to the United States." Talleyrand,
who reports this reply, adds that Arnold " dared not
tell me his name."
Some thirty months were spent by Talleyrand in
this country, the winter being passed in New York
and Philadelphia, " without any other aim," he
wrote, " than that of being away from either France
or England, and impelled by the sole interest of see-
ing with my own eyes the great American nation
whose history is only beginning." The summers he
spent in travel through the interiors of New York,
Connecticut, and other States, visiting among other
places the upper Susquehanna Valley on horseback.
Samuel Breck, who met Talleyrand in New York
before he and Beaumetz set out on their journey,
says Talleyrand had a rifleman's suit made for the
occasion, and remarks the" pride and delight " with
which the ex-Bishop of Autun displayed it. Several
days and perhaps a week are believed by Wilkinson
to have been spent where now stands Binghamton.
A visit was also made to some Frenchmen who had
settled in Greene. Talleyrand spent a few days at
Cooperstown as the guest of Judge Cooper, and an
acrostic on the Judge's daughter, printed in the Ot-
sego Herald for October 2, 1795,1s ascribed to him.
Talleyrand's Susquehanna visit seems to have been
3 6 9
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
a direct outcome of his acquaintance with Gouver-
neur Morris, an uncle of Jacob Morris, whom he
had known intimately in Paris, where Morris was for
a time a conspicuous political figure. It was also at
Gouverneur Morris's suggestion that three French
princes in those years visited this country, receiving
in their temporary distress advances of money from
him for their expenses. They went to the Gene-
see country, where Morris was interested in land.
One of them was that Duke of Orleans who after-
ward rose to be King of France, under the name
of Louis Philippe. Returning from the Genesee
country they went down the Susquehanna from
Tioga Point in a bateau to Harrisburgh. The full
story of their inland tour has never yet been told,
even in French, else we should know whether they
also came into Otsego County for the purpose of
seeing the nephew of their benefactor. That Tal-
leyrand visited General Morris is next door to a
certainty, for he went to Cooperstown. Talleyrand,
as well as the French princes, may have had financial
aid from Gouverneur Morris.
During his journey Talleyrand says his mind was
" neither free nor active enough to induce me to
write a book." But we have in his memoirs several
interesting passages that refer to his wilderness jour-
ney, and among them these :
I made up my mind to leave Philadelphia, and therefore
proposed to M. de Beaumetz * and to a Dutch gentleman
of the name of Heydecoper to travel inland with me. They
both accepted, and I must confess that I was pleased with
the undertaking from the beginning. I was struck with
* Beaumetz had been a member of the States General at the outbreak
of the French Revolution, but he emigrated in 1792. He finally died
in India.
370
TALLEYRAND'S VISIT
astonishment ; at less than 154 miles' distance from the
capital, all trace of men's presence disappeared ; Nature, in
all her primeval vigor, confronted us ; forests old as the
world itself; decayed plants and trees covering the very
ground where they once grew in luxuriance ; others shoot-
ing forth from under the debris of the former, and like them
destined to decay and rot ; thick and intricate bushes that
often barred our progress ; green and luxuriant grass deck-
ing the banks of rivers ; large, natural meadows ; strange
and delicate flowers quite new to me ; and here and there
the traces of former tornadoes that had carried everything
before them. Enormous trees all mowed down in the same
direction, extending for a considerable distance, bear wit-
ness to the wonderful force of these phenomena.
On reaching higher ground, our eyes wandered as far as
the sight could range over a most varied and pleasant pict-
ure. The tops of trees and the undulations of the ground,
which alone interfere with the uniform aspect of large ex-
tents of country, produce a peculiar effect. In the face of
these immense solitudes, we gave free bent to our imagina-
tions ; our minds built cities, villages and hamlets ; the
mountain forests were to remain untouched ; the slopes of
the hills to be covered with luxuriant crops, and we could
almost fancy we saw numerous herds of cattle grazing in
the valley under our eyes. There is an inexpressible charm
in thinking of the future when travelling in such countries.
To be riding through a large wild forest, to lose one's
way in it in the middle of the night, and to call to one's
companion in order to ascertain that you are not missing
each other ; all this gives impressions impossible to define,
because each incident reflects comically on the others.
When I cried, " So-and-so, are you here ? " and my com-
panion replied, " Unfortunately I am, My Lord," I could not
help laughing at our position. That " unfortunately I am "
so pitifully uttered, and that " My Lord " in allusion to the
Autun bishopric, sounded most ludicrous.
Talleyrand returned to Europe early in 1797.
Affairs in France were then to undergo the historic
371
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
change ushered in by young Napoleon Bonaparte's
"whiff of grapeshot." Talleyrand at once threw
himself into that flood tide by which men were led
on to great fortunes, and eventually won for himself
wide celebrity as the chief adviser of Napoleon and
the first diplomatist in Europe.
372
VI
Churches Father Nash
and Others Founded
1795-1809
AFTER the Revolution, missionaries speedily
followed the pioneers, but the actual organi-
zation of churches — except that Cherry Val-
ley still maintained the church founded with the
settlement of the place — did not begin until the cen-
tury had nearly closed. Early on the list were the
Baptist church in Morris, organized in August
1793, and the Baptist church in Franklin, over
which the Rev. Mr. Bacon was presiding in 1799.
Soon afterward a Presbyterian church was established
in Sidney. The faiths which Englishmen know as
Nonconformist naturally were the first to start re-
ligious societies among frontier settlements, founded
mainly by New England and Scotch-Irish folks.
At Cooperstown, the Presbyterians and Congrega-
tionalists founded a society in 1798, and in 1800
had secured a regular pastor; but as early as 1795
what was called The First Religious Society of the
Town of Otsego was formed, with Elisha Moseley
as minister for six months, and out of this is be-
lieved to have grown the society of 1798. To
about the same period belongs the organization of
the Presbyterian church of Oneonta, of which the
first pastor was the Rev. Alexander Conkey. In
the village of Morris a Presbyterian church was
organized as " The first Presbyterian Church of
373
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Unadilla," Morris as well as several other towns in
Otsego County being then a part of the town of
Unadilla.
Some time before 1796, an Episcopal minister,
Daniel Burhans, D.D., had made a tour of the valley
and visited various remote settlements. At Morris,
in 1793, had been organized an Episcopal church,
and in this work Dr. Burhans probably had some
share. Dr. Burhans was a native of Connecticut,
and had spent his youth in New Milford, one of the
few Connecticut towns where Episcopalianism, after
trial enough, had secured a foothold. Becoming a
teacher, he had settled in New Lebanon, Columbia
County, N. Y., not far from Catskill. Dr. Burhans
before 1796 had made a tour of the upper Susque-
hanna, returning with a conviction that a promising
field existed for active missionary work by the Epis-
copal Church.
He finally prevailed on the principal of the
academy at New Lebanon, Daniel Nash, to prepare
for orders and proceed into the country to continue
the work. A native of Great Barrington, Mass.,
Daniel Nash had been graduated from Yale College
in 1785, and for the next ten years had been prin-
cipal of academies in New York and New Jersey.
He had been reared a Congregationalist, but in
1797, after two years of preparation, was ordained
an Episcopal deacon in St. George's Chapel in New
York, by Bishop Provost, the first Bishop of New
York, and a priest in 1801, by Bishop Moore.
From 1797 until his death, Father Nash labored
with great zeal as a missionary and acquired the offi-
cial title of Rector of the Churches in Otsego County.
The supreme testimony to Father Nash's devo-
tion and practical talents for church building, seems
374
FATHER NASH
to lie in the fact that he was able on such territory
to succeed at all. Before his arrival, as we have
seen, the upper Susquehanna settlements had been
dominated by the faith of Calvin, not only since the
Revolution, but before it. Indeed one cannot find
anywhere a trace of Episcopal influence in the valley
before he and Dr. Burhans began their work. Such
influence prevailed along the Mohawk, but never
on the Susquehanna. Outside of the Scotch-Irish,
nine-tenths of the pioneers from 1784 until 1810
were from New England, and mainly from Connec-
ticut, the home of Congregationalism. Nothing is
more remarkable about them than the fidelity with
which, on the new soil, they preserved the habits,
customs, and faith of their older home.
Father Nash came into the valley with his wife
for companion in his work, and this she remained
through all his labors. They lived in rude cabins
of unhewn logs, having scarcely a pane of glass at
the windows and only a single room. In 1797
Philander Chase, who was afterward a bishop, made
him a visit while on a tour of missionary observation
in Central New York. Chase had succeeded Robert
G. Wetmore, who had already labored along the
head waters of the Delaware and Unadilla rivers, and
from ill-health had been forced to retire. Bishop
Chase says he helped Father Nash " carry his little
articles of crockery, holding one handle of the basket,
and Mr. Nash the other, and as they walked the
road, talked of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God." Even the log-cabin he lived in, was not
his own. " Nor was he permitted," says Chase,
" to live in one for a long time together." When
it became necessary to change his residence, " he
had not the means to move substances from one
375
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
cabin to another, except with his own hands, assisted
only by his wife and his small children, and a passing
missionary." The doors of the cabin had wooden
hinges, creaking as they were turned. While the
children built the fire, Mrs. Nash prepared the food
for the bishop and the family. Of his wife's share
in his religious work, Father Nash himself has
written :
Often she gave me a child and then got on the horse
behind me with another in her arms, and thus we would go to
public worship for a number of miles. She excelled in music
and I understood it all. When the congregations did not
well understand how to make the responses she always did'
it in a solemn manner.
A house in which Father Nash often conducted
services was that of Percefer Carr, in Edmeston,
the pre-Revolutionary settler and friend of Brant,
who had been driven from his home by the Oneida
Indians, and afterward had returned to it. Father
Nash's labors in Otsego County lacked but one year
of embracing a period of forty years. As late as
1835 ne preached in Butternuts, Richfield, and New
Lisbon. In Judge Cooper he had a valuable friend.
Fenimore Cooper knew him well, and has given an
instructive picture of his life and times in the " Pio-
neers," where he appears as the Rev. Mr. Grant.
Many churches in Otsego County were the di-
rect outcome of Father Nash's influence, and among
these was St. Matthew's church of Unadilla. Ex-
cept for him the latter church must have been a
Presbyterian organization. The settlers in Unadilla,
with scarcely an exception, were from Connecticut
and Massachusetts. Many had already contributed
liberally to the support of a Calvinistic church in
376
FATHER NASH
Sidney, among them men who were afterward asso-
ciated with the founding of St. Matthew's.
This church was founded, not so much in the
interest of any particular denomination, as to pro-
mote good order in the community. In its growing
prosperity the new settlement had been suffering
from vigorous energy unrestrained by moral influ-
ences. The ease with which licenses were obtained,
the cheapness of whiskey, and the remoteness from
centres of authority, had led to wild and free life, and
the order-loving men from Connecticut had become
eager to set up an influence which should check the
growth of disorder. What, in other places, and
notably in Meredith, took the form of a ringing
protest from a " law and order committee," in Una-
dilla took the form of a church founded in 1809.
Similar conditions in other communities may have
aided him in his work, but his own personality, his
pious zeal, his apostolic sincerity and simplicity, were
the main factors in his extraordinary success. Dr.
Burhans once said that Father Nash had done
more to establish and extend the Episcopal Church
" than any other clergyman ever did in the United
States " — surely an exalted tribute to a man labor-
ing in such conditions. Father Nash spent the re-
mainder of his life in Otsego County, dying in
Burlington at the home of his son-in-law in 1836.
With his wife, he was buried some years later in the
churchyard of Christ Church, in Cooperstown, be-
neath the shade of a noble pine-tree — a place he had
himself chosen for the purpose. His grave, with
that of his wife, remains a familiar spot in that burial
ground. It is marked by an obelisk of marble, on
which appears the name " Father Nash," the name
Daniel being omitted. Under Father Nash, Christ
377
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Church was organized in 1 8 1 1 . Within its grounds,
and not far from Father Nash, also lies buried Feni-
more Cooper.*
Father Nash's memory has been deservedly hon-
ored in the shire town of Otsego. No Otsego pioneer
deserves honor more — not the road builder or the
leveller of forests, not the men who fought against
Brant and the Tories, not William Cooper, with his
vast land enterprises. To none of these, in so large
a degree can we apply with such full measure of
truth, the sayings that no man liveth unto himself,
and that his works do follow him. The labors of
Father Nash recall nothing so forcibly as the labors
of the French Jesuits among the Iroquois in the
seventeenth century. Apostolic is the word for his
simplicity, as well as theirs, his heroic devotion, his
complete self-abnegation.
* The same enclosure contains the grave of a man who, twenty-five
years ago, was prominent in the newspaper world of New York City-
Ivory Chamberlin.
378
VII
A Great Highway
1769-1802
BEFORE the war something of a road had
been cut through the woods from Otsego
Lake southward along the Susquehanna, and
other primitive roads led to and from the lake ; but
these highways had almost disappeared during the
later years of the war, when Nature had done her
effective work of reclamation. The one leading
from the lake southward was improved in 1786 as
far as Hartwick, and others were speedily taken in
hand. Further down the river efforts were made to
establish convenient communication with the Hud-
son, and out of this grew a road which eventually
became the great highway for a large territory. It
was called the Catskill Turnpike, and had its termi-
nus on the Susquehanna at Wattles's Ferry.
This road, as a turnpike, properly dates from 1 802,
but the road itself is much older. Its eastern end
had been opened long before the Revolution with a
terminus in the Charlotte Valley. It seems then to
have been hardly more than a narrow clearing through
the forest, what farmers call a" wood road," or fron-
tiersmen a " tote road." It served as a convenient
route to the Susquehanna, because much shorter
than the older route by the Mohawk Valley. Over
this road on horseback in 1769, as we have seen,
came Colonel Staats Long Morris and his wife, the
Duchess of Gordon.
After the war demands rose for a better road, and
379
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
one was soon undertaken with its terminus at Wat-
tles's Ferry. This terminus appears to have been
chosen because the river here was deep enough to
permit the use of " battoes " during the low water
that prevailed in summer. By the summer of 1788
the road was in passable condition. Alexander Har-
per and Edward Paine in February, 1789, declared
that they had been to " a very great expense in
opening the roads from Catskill and the Hudson to
the Susquehanna River." In the same year a peti-
tion was filed for a road " from the Ouleout to Can-
nadessagos " (the old Indian town near Geneva) ;
and another in the same year in behalf of a proposed
road, obviously the same, "from the Ouleout to
Kyuga Lake." The road to Cayuga Lake (Ithaca)
made slow progress, and in 1791 General Jacob
Morris addressed to Governor Clinton a letter which
shows that it was then still to be undertaken. Early
in 1790 the State had taken the road to Catskill in
charge. In August G. Gelston made up from sur-
veys a map from Catskill " running westerly to the
junction of the Ouleout Creek with the Susquehan-
na River." The country had been previously ex-
plored for the purpose by James Barker and David
Laurence.*
In 1 79 1 Sluman Wattles charged his cousin,
Nathaniel Wattles, ,£4, 6s. for " carting three bar-
rells from your house to Catskill," £\ for "five
days work on the road," and 15 shillings for " in-
specting road." Besides Nathaniel Wattles, Menad
Hunt was interested in the work, and in 1792 the
two men appealed to the State to be reimbursed for
money paid out above the contract price.f During
this year the father of the late Dr. Samuel H. Case,
* State Land Papers. t Sluman Wattles' s Account Book.
380
A GREAT HIGHWAY
of Oneonta, emigrated to the upper Ouleout from
Colchester, Conn., with his seven brothers. They
drove cattle and sheep ahead of them, and consumed
eight days in making the journey from the Hudson
River. Solomon Martin went over the road in the
same year, using Sluman Wattles's oxen, for which
he was charged j[i y ijs. He went to Catskill, and
was gone fifteen days. This road was only twenty-
five feet wide. In 1792 a regular weekly mail-route
was established over it.
These are among the many roads which were
opened in the neighborhood before the century
closed — before the Catskill Turnpike, as a turnpike,
came into existence. Nearly every part of the town
of Unadilla, then embracing one-third of Otsego
County, had been made accessible before the year
1 800. The pioneers had taken up lands all through
the hill country. But the needs of the settlers had
not been fully met. All over the State prevailed
similar conditions. The demands that poured in
upon State and town authorities for road improve-
ments became far in excess of what could be satis-
fied. Everywhere fertile lands had been cleared
and sown to grain, but the crops were so enormous
that they could neither be consumed at home nor
transported to market elsewhere. Professor McMas-
ter says that " the heaviest taxes that could have
been laid would not have sufficed to cut out half the
roads or build half the bridges " that commerce
required.
Out of this condition grew the policy of granting
charters to turnpike companies, formed by well-to-do
land-owners, who undertook to build roads and
maintain them in proper condition for the privilege
of imposing tolls. Men owning land and possessed
38i
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
of ready money, were everywhere eager to invest in
these enterprises. They not only saw the promise
of dividends, but ready sales for their lands. At
one time an amount of capital almost equal to the
domestic debt of the nation when the Revolution
closed was thus employed throughout the country.
By the year 1811, no fewer than 137 roads had
been chartered in New York State alone, with a total
length of 4,500 miles and a total capital of $7,500,-
000. About one-third of this mileage was eventually
completed.
Eight turnpikes went out from Albany, and five
others joined Catskill, Kingston, and Newburg with
the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers. The earliest
of these five, and one of the earliest in the State, was
the Catskill and Susquehanna turnpike, that sup-
planted the primitive State road to Wattles's Ferry.
The old course was changed in several localities, the
charter permitting the stockholders to choose their
route. Among the names in the charter were John
Livingston, Caleb Benton (a brother of Stephen
Benton), John Kortright, Sluman Wattles, and Solo-
mon Martin. The stock was limited to $12,000 in
shares of $20 each.
The road ran through lands owned by the stock-
holders. Little regard was had for grades, as travel-
lers well know. The main purpose was to make the
land accessible and marketable. The road was com-
pleted in 1 802, and soon became a famous highway
to Central New York, and the navigable Susque-
hanna, and so remained for more than a quarter of
a century. It was in operation four years earlier
than the Great Western Turnpike, connecting
Albany with Buffalo and running through Cherry
Valley. Spafford in 18 13 described it as "the
382
A GREAT HIGHWAY
Appian Way turnpike," in which is seen the pride
felt in it, likened as it thus was to one of the best
roads ever built by man — that Roman highway which
still does service after the lapse of more than 2,000
years. In one sense this turnpike was like a Roman
road : it followed straight lines from point to point
regardless of hills, obstacles being squarely faced
and defied by these modern men as by the old
Romans.
Ten toll-gates were set up along the line, with the
rates as follows : for twenty sheep and hogs, eight
cents ; for twenty horses and cattle, twenty cents ;
for a horse and rider, five cents ; for a horse and
chaise, twelve and one-half cents ; for a coach or
chariot, twenty-five cents ; for a stage or wagon,
twelve and one-half cents. In 1804, Caleb Benton,
who lived in Catskill, was president of the corpora-
tion, and in 1805 the stage business of the road was
granted as a monopoly to David Bostwick, Stephen
Benton, Lemuel Hotchkiss, and Terence Donnelly.
Two stages were to be kept regularly on the road,
the fare to be five cents per mile. A stage that
left Catskill Wednesday morning reached Unadilla
Friday night, and one that left Unadilla Sunday
reached Catskill Tuesday. The most prosperous
period for the road was the ten years from 1820 to
1830.
Two years after the road was built, Dr. Timothy
Dwight, President of Yale College, during one of
his regular vacation journeys, passed over it and
stopped at Unadilla. He has left a full record of
the journey. Dr. Dwight, accustomed long to the
comforts of life in New England, had no sooner
crossed the State line from Massachusetts to New
York than he observed a change. The houses be-
3*3
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
came ordinary and ill repaired, and very many of
them were taverns of wretched appearance.
For sixteen or eighteen miles, he saw neither
church nor school-house. Catskill contained about
ioo houses, and much of the business was done by
barter. The turnpike to the Susquehanna he de-
scribed as a " branch of the Greenwood turnpike
from Hartford to Albany, commencing from Canaan
in Connecticut and passing to Wattles's Ferry on
the Susquehanna. Thence it is proposed to ex-
tend it to the county of Trumbull on the southern
shore of Lake Erie." The road he thought " well
made."
Connecticut families were found settled along the
line. Now he came upon " a few lonely plantations
recently begun upon the road," and then " occasion-
ally passed a cottage, and heard the distant sound of
an axe and of a human voice. All else was grandeur,
gloom and solitude." At last after many miles of
riding he reached a settlement " for some miles a
thinly built village, composed of neat, tidy houses,"
in which everything " indicated prosperity." This
was Franklin. Coming down the Ouleout, the coun-
try, he said, " wore a forbidding aspect, the houses
being thinly scattered and many of them denoted
great poverty."
When Dr. Dwight reached Wattles's Ferry, the
more serious trials of his journey began. All the
privations of life in a new country which he had met
on the road from Catskill at last had overtaxed his
patience, and he poured forth his perturbed spirit
upon this infant settlement. When he made a sec-
ond visit a few years later he liked the place much
better. His first impressions are chronicled at some
length. He says :
384
A GREAT HIGHWAY
When we arrived at the Susquehanna we found the only
inn-keeper, at the Eastern side of the river, unable to fur-
nish us a dinner. To obtain this indispensable article we
were obliged therefore to cross the river. The ferry-boat
was gone. The inhabitants had been some time employed
in building a bridge, but it was unfinished and impassable.
There was nothing left us, therefore, but to cross a deep and
rapid ford. Happily the bottom was free from rocks and
stones.
Dr. Dwight appears to have found no satisfactory
stopping-place in Unadilla, and proceeds to say :
About four miles from the ferry we came to an inn kept
by a Scotchman named Hanna. Within this distance we
called at several others, none of which could furnish us a
dinner. I call them inns because this name is given them
by the laws of the State, and because each of them hangs
out a sign challenging this title. But the law has nick-
named them, and the signs are liars.
It is said, and I suppose truly, that in this State any man
who will pay for an inn-keeper's license obtains one of course.
In consequence of this practice the number of houses which
bear the appellation is already enormous. Too many of
them are mere dramshops of no other use than to deceive,
disappoint and vex travellers and to spread little circles of
drunkenness throughout the State. A traveller after passing
from inn to inn in a tedious succession finds that he can
get nothing for his horse and nothing for himself.
The remedy he prescribed for this was to license
" only one inn where there are five or six." The
evil was general. In 1810 the people of Meredith
made a formal and vigorous protest against the growth
of intemperance and crime as caused by public
houses. There were ten hotels in that town alone,
besides a number of distilleries. Many citizens
banded themselves in behalf of order and decency,
38s
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
and their protest abounded in an energy of language
that would have delighted the soul of Dr. Dwight.
Of his further experience at Mr. Hanna's hotel, he
says :
We at length procured a dinner and finding no house at a
proper distance where we could be lodged concluded to stay
where we were. Our fare was indeed bad enough, but we
were sheltered from the weather. Our inn-keeper besides
furnishing us with such other accommodations as his home
afforded, added to it the pleasures of his company and
plainly considered himself as doing us no small favor. In
that peculiar situation in which the tongue vibrates with its
utmost ease and celerity, he repeated to us a series of anec-
dotes dull and vulgar in the extreme. Yet they all con-
tained a seasoning which was exquisite, for himself was in
every case the hero of the tale. To add to our amusement,
he called for the poems of Allan Ramsay and read several of
them to us in what he declared to be the true Scottish pro-
nunciation, laughing incessantly and with great self-compla-
cency as he proceeded.
Dr. Dwight remarks that " a new turnpike road
is begun from the ferry and intended to join the
Great Western road either at Cayuga bridge or
Canandaigua. This route will furnish a nearer
journey to Niagara than that which is used at pres-
ent." We see from this what were the plans of
that day, as to the future central highway of New
York State. Of Unadilla Dr. Dwight says :
That township in which we now were is named Unadilla
and lies in the county of Otsego. It is composed of rough
hills and valleys with a handsome collection of intervales
along the Susquehanna. On a remarkably ragged eminence
immediately north-west of the river, we saw the first oaks
and chestnuts after leaving the neighborhood of Catskill.
The intervening forests were beach, maple, etc. The
386
A GREAT HIGHWAY
houses in Unadilla were scattered along the road which
runs parallel with the river. The settlement is new and
appears like most others of a similar date. Rafts contain-
ing each from twenty to twenty-five thousand feet of boards
are from this township floated down the Susquehanna to
Baltimore. Unadilla contained in 1800 eight hundred and
twenty-three inhabitants.
On September 27, 1804, Dr. Dwight left Mr.
Hanna's inn and rode through to Oxford. The
first two miles of the way along the Susquehanna
were " tolerably good and with a little labor capable
of being excellent." He continues :
We then crossed the Unadilla, a river somewhat smaller
but considerable longer (sic) than the Susquehanna proper,
quite as deep and as difficult to be forded. Our course to
this river was south-west. We then turned directly north
along the banks of the Unadilla, and travelling over a
rugged hill, passed through a noble cluster of white pines,
some of which though not more than three feet in diameter,
were, as I judged, not less than 200 feet in height. No
object in the vegetable world can be compared with this.
Eleven years later, Dr. Dwight again passed over
the turnpike on his way to Utica. " The road from
Catskill to Oxford," he said, " I find generally bad,
as having been long neglected. The first twenty
miles were tolerable, the last twenty absolutely
intolerable." After noting that in Franklin " relig-
ion had extensively prevailed," he wrote :
Unadilla is becoming a very pretty village. It is built
on a delightful ground along the Susquehanna and the
number of houses, particularly of good ones, has much in-
creased. A part of the country between this and Oxford
is cultivated ; a considerable part of it is still a wilderness.
The country is rough and of a high elevation.
387
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
In some reminiscenses which my father wrote in
1890, he described the scenes along this road that
were familiar to him in boyhood at Kortright — 1825
to 1835. The roa d was then in its most prosper-
ous period. It was not uncommon for one of the
hotels, which marked every few miles of the route,
to entertain thirty or forty guests at a time. The
freight wagons were huge in size, drawn by six and
eight horses, and had wheels with wide tires. Stages
drawn by four and six horses were continually in use.
Not infrequently came families bound for Ohio,
where they expected to settle — some of these Con-
necticut people, who helped to plant the Western
Reserve settlements. This vast traffic brought easy
prosperity to the people along the turnpike and
built up towns and villages. My father records the
success of the Rev. Mr. McAuley's church at Kort-
right — a place that has now retrograded so that it is
only a small hamlet, just capable of retaining a post-
office. But Mr. McAuley's church at one time,
more than sixty years ago, had 500 members, and
was said to be the largest church society west of the
Hudson valley.
A change occurred with the digging of the Erie
Canal and the building of the Erie Railway. More-
over, in 1834 was built a turnpike from North
Kortright through the Charlotte Valley to Oneonta.
The white man having tried a route of his own over
the hills, reverted to the route which the red man
had marked out for him ages before. Much easier
was the grade by this river road, and this fact exer-
cised a marked influence on the fortunes of the set-
tlements along the olden line. Freight wagons were
drawn off and sent by the easier way. Stages fol-
lowed the new turnpike and the country between
388
A GREAT HIGHWAY
Wattles's Ferry and Kortright retrograded as rapidly
as it had formerly improved.*
The building of the Catskill Turnpike really led
to the founding of Unadilla village on its present
site. It had confined to this point a growth which
otherwise would probably have been distributed
among other points along the valley. Here was a
stopping-place, with a river to be crossed, horses to
be changed, and new stages taken, and here had
been established the important market for country
produce of Noble & Hayes. Unadilla became
what might be called a small but thriving inland
river port. Here lumber was sawed and here it
came from mills elsewhere for shipment along with
farm products to Baltimore. Here grain was
ground, and here were three prosperous distilleries.
The building of the turnpike along the Charlotte
was not the only blow that came to the western por-
tion of the Catskill Road. Another and permanent
one came to the whole length of the turnpike when
the Erie Canal was built, followed later by the Erie
Railroad. Otsego County, in 1832, had reached a
population of 52,370, but with the Erie Canal in
operation it ceased to grow. At the present time
the showing is considerably less than it was in 1832,
and yet several villages have made large increases,
the increase in Oneonta being probably tenfold.
Contemporary with the Erie Canal was an attempt
to provide the Susquehanna with a canal. It became
* A stage line, however, for long years afterward supplied these set-
tlements with a means of communication with Unadilla, and it is within
the memory of many persons still calling themselves young that for a
considerable series of years, trips twice a week were regularly made by
Henry S. Woodruff. After Mr. Woodruff's death a large and interest-
ing collection of coaches, sleighs, and other stage relics remained upon
his premises — the last survivals of coaching times on the Catskill Turn-
pike, embracing a period of three-quarters of a century.
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
a subject of vast local interest from Cooperstown to
the interior of Pennsylvania. The scheme included
a railway, or some other method of reaching the
Erie Canal from the head of Otsego Lake. Colonel
De Witt Clinton, Jr., son of the governor, made a
survey as far as Milford, and found that in nine miles
there was a fall of thirty feet, and that at Unadilla
the fall from the lake was 150 feet, while in 110
miles from the lake it was 350 feet. In 1830 a new
survey showed that 144 miles out of 153 were
already navigable, the remaining nineteen requiring
a canal. Some seventy locks would be needed and
sixty-five dams. Judge Page, while a member of
Congress, introduced a bill to aid slack-water naviga-
tion from Cooperstown to tide-water. It was his
opinion that the failure of the bill was due to the
spread of railroads.
With the ushering in of the great railroad era, the
Susquehanna Valley saw started as early as 1 830
many railroad projects which could save it from
threatened danger. Their aim was to connect the
upper Susquehanna with the Hudson at Catskill,
and the Mohawk at Canajoharie. None ever got
beyond the charter stage. Strenuous efforts were
afterward made to bring the Erie from the ancient
Cookoze (Deposit) to the Susquehanna at a point
above Oghwaga, but this also failed.
Indeed it was not until after the Civil War that
any railroad reached the head-waters of the Susque-
hanna ; but it was an agreeable sign of the enterprise
which attended the men of 1830 and following years
that at the period when the earliest railroad in this
State, and one of the earliest on this continent, had
just been built from Albany to Schenectady, serious
projects existed for opening this valley to the outer
390
A GREAT HIGHWAY
world. Even the great Erie project languished long
in consequence of business depression. It was not
until 1845 t ^ iat lt was completed as far as Middle-
town, and not until 1851 that it reached Dunkirk.
Not even to the Erie was final supremacy on this
frontier assured, but the upper Susquehanna lands,
more than those through which the Erie ran, was
doomed to a condition of isolation. Nature itself
had decreed that the great route of transportation in
New York State was to run where the great trail of
the Iroquois for centuries had run — through the
Mohawk Valley. Along that central trail from Al-
bany, " the Eastern door," to Buffalo, " the West-
ern door of the Long House," the course of empire
westward was to take its way.
391
VIII
Economic Facts
in
Pioneer Life
EARLY in the century the forces which deter-
mined the character of the frontier villages for
the next fifty years were well under way.
Already had arrived the men upon whom for many
years progress was to rest — those who built the grist
and saw mills, the store-keepers, the lumber men,
the builders of roads, the owners of cloth mills, the
heads of potash industries, and those who sent the
produce rafts down the rivers to large markets. On
the Susquehanna for half a century existed a thriv-
ing community distant nearly a hundred miles from
Catskill with no other outlet for its products than
the great world to which the turnpike or the river
opened the way.
The wealth that nature yielded comprised pork,
bacon, lard, lumber, grain, wool, furs, and hides. To
transport raw material to Catskill or Baltimore was a
costly undertaking. The aim always was to send it
in the form that involved the least expense for trans-
portation, a notable example of which was seen in
the numerous distilleries set up for the consumption
of surplus grain. Early in the century it cost |i to
transport a barrel of flour from Central New York
to Philadelphia. Grain and flour carried more than
150 miles could hardly be sold at a profit. Freight
on an average cost about $10 a ton for each 100
39 11
ECONOMIC FACTS
miles, or ten cents a mile per ton ; while in excep-
tional cases, like the all-land route from Philadel-
phia to Pittsburg, a ton cost as high as $125 for the
500 miles, which was $25 for each 100 miles, or
twenty-five cents for each mile per ton.*
In all directions the best economy before the days
of good roads, canals and railroads advised every pos-
sible kind of local manufacturing, and hence came
into existence in every community not only distil-
leries and grist-mills, but fulling-mills, hat factories,
and wagon-shops. Most interesting of all these in-
dustries, perhaps, were those for producing home-
spun cloth. Mr. Rogers has described them from
personal recollections. He says that before 1844
every farmer's wife in the Susquehanna Valley saw
that yarn for stockings and mittens, as well as flan-
nel for underwear, fulled cloth and pressed flannel
were made. Mills to card the wool into rolls, and
also to color, full and dress the cloth, were common
throughout the country :
After carding, the wool was spun, a wheel and " clock
reel " being found in every family. Much spinning was
done by hired labor, thirty knots of warp and stocking yarn,
or forty of " filling," being a day's work.
Mr. Rogers proceeds to say :
After being spun the yarn was scoured and taken to the
weaver's. Here the warp was spooled, run ofFon warping
bars, and thus warped. Then each individual thread was
drawn through one or two " harnesses," and all through a
reed, after being wound on the warping-beam. The filling
or woof was quilled, the quill being a small paper cone of
home construction. Both spooling and quilling were done
*It was stated a few years ago by Chauncey M. Depew that the aver-
age freight rate by railroad at that time was less than three-quarters of
a cent per ton for each mile of distance.
393
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
on a " quill wheel," and the quills were put into a shuttle
and thrown by hand. Treadles worked by foot-power
pulled down one harness, the reed, hung in a heavy frame,
was beaten with one hand, and then the shuttle was thrown
back with the other. A good many yards could be woven
in a day.
When the cloth was taken from the loom, it went to the
dye shop. The colors in common use were snuff brown
and butternut. After the dyeing process, the cloth " was
fulled, teasled, sheared and pressed, and then sent home to
be made up by some woman tailor. As for a " boughten
coat," a boy did not get one until he got big enough to
" go in company " or work out and earn one.
Mr. Rogers adds that pressed woollen dresses had
one great failing — their facility for catching lint and
dust — and he tells in illustration of the fact the fol-
lowing touching tale :
Dr. Henry Mitchell, of Norwich, a very eminent physi-
cian, and at one time a M.C., was called one fearfully cold
and blustering day to see a woman, who was largely a hypo-
chondriac. The doctor went into the sick-room, where the
woman had lain down with one of these pressed dresses on.
Her hair was unkempt, and as she raised herself to greet him,
her dress showed the effect of contact with feathers and lint.
She broke out, " Oh, Doctor, I look dreadfully, I know, but I
don't look half as bad as I feel." To which he replied :
" Then, by , you will die."
The prices that were paid for land, farm products,
store goods and labor shed light on economic con-
ditions. From old diaries, account-books and let-
ters one can compile lists of prices and, as he turns
the yellow pages, form conclusions as striking as
they are interesting. Land values were of course
very low, but they were quick to rise. As little as
1 8 cents per acre was paid in Bainbridge. William
394
ECONOMIC FACTS
Cooper in 1786, after a foreclosure sale, obtained
his vast tract comprising 29,350 acres for about 50
cents per acre. In 1789 Leonard M. Cutting pur-
chased of the State 25,000 acres on the west side of
the Unadilla River at 3 shillings and one farthing
an acre. Other large tracts in the same region were
sold for the same price. Eleven years after William
Cooper acquired his tract, he sold off a farm to
Levi Pierce for $5 per acre. A pioneer named
Jonathan Price leased from Mr. Cooper 180 acres
at fourteen cents annually per acre. About the
year 1800 Ransom Hunt purchased his several
hundred acres in Otego for $1.25 per acre. Values
in Schoharie County were much higher. Brown says
that as early as 1759 land laid out in lots sold at
from $1.00 to $5.00. In 1786 Schoharie land was
worth $5.00, and in 18 17 from $10 to $25.
The capital required, once a pioneer had arrived
with his family and secured his land, was small. A
yoke of oxen was valued after the war at about $70 ;
a cow at $15, the farming tools absolutely required
at $20, and an ox-cart at $30, or a total of $135.
A log-house with two rooms in it, built by hired
labor, cost about $100. One with a single room,
twenty feet square, could be put up for much less, and
when a man did the work himself, the cost went
down accordingly.
Solomon Martin in 1797, was charged $25, for
two tons of hay, and in 1803, $60, for a yoke of
oxen. Sherman Page in 1806 was charged $7.60
for 1,010 feet of panel boards; Amos Bidwell in
1798, two shillings, two pence for 5f pounds of
beef; Hugh Thompson in 1797, 2 shillings for 25
pumpkins; Daniel Mack in 1793, 4 shillings for
one bushel of corn, and 6 shillings for two bushels
39S
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
of wheat; and Daniel Bissell in 1793, 14 shillings
for 400 bricks and 16 shillings for " four days of
work building chimney;" Guido L. Bissell in 1805,
$74, for 14,854 feet of boards. The cash sum of
$24 was paid in 1802 to Sluman Bartlett for a barrel
of whiskey and Guido L. Bissell was credited in
1 807 with $60, for a horse.
For " drawing deeds and acknowledging tkem "
in 1797 Eliphalet Smith was to pay $1.50; for
"making pair breeches," Joseph Merrick in 1797
was to pay 6 shillings, and " for making coat," 8
shillings; Ephraim Little in 1798 "for making two
caps " 4 shillings ; " for schooling one child six
weeks" in 1792, 3 shillings 3 pence. In 1806
Benjamin Beech was to pay 2 shillings 6 pence
" for one day's cradeling when you went to train-
ing." In 1798 for "boarding Betsey Adams on
Mrs. Adams's account, 6 weeks " the charge was
£1, 6 shillings.
Solomon Martin in 1803 was charged for the use
of a horse "at 3 pence per mile for 153 miles;"
Amos Bidwell in 1797 for " ride of my mare 20
miles " 6 shillings 8 pence ; Hugh Thompson in
1797 for "the use of my sleigh to Shenango, 8
shillings;" Ira Birdsall in 1827 for "the ride of
the black mare up Sand Hill and gave her a bad
sweating" 25 cents; Ephraim Little in 1798 for
" the use of horse and a sleigh to the Susquehanna,
gone 3 days, 8 shillings ; " Robert Freeman in
1797, " to my time, horse and expense to the Uni-
dealy, £1 ;" Erastus Root in 1797, " to a journey
to Shenango on your business, finding myself, horse
and expenses, £4. ; " an estate in 1798, " to a jour-
ney of 40 miles to the Surrogate to be qualified as
an executor, $6 ; " Daniel Bissell in 1797 " to ten
396
ECONOMIC FACTS
days in your business at German Flatts, finding my
own horse to ride at $i per day, £4.;" David
Baits in 1797 to a journey to Albany on "account
of being bail for you, finding my own horse and
expense, nine days at $2 a day, $18;" Henry
Birdsall in 18 19 "to one day spent to do your
business with Judge Sands * by your request, $1 ;"
and Nathaniel Wattles in 1792, "to my journey to
New York, /6."f
Other interesting items appear in the Unadilla
town records. In 1809 Samuel Betts and Silas
Scott, poor-masters, entered a credit for "cash
received of A. H. Beach as a fine against Francis
West for breach of the Sabbath, 75 cents." In 18 14
credit was entered for cash received of Uriah Han-
ford, Esq., " for fines imposed for profain swearing,
etc., $2.25." In 1822 a charge was made of $2.00
for " writing and putting up notices against drunk-
ards." Curtis Noble as town clerk in 18 12, entered
a statement that Stephen Benton " directed me to
enter on the records of the town that his black
slave Gin was delivered of a male child on the 24th
of September, 181 1, which he calls William and
delivered me a certificate of the same as the laws
directs." Slaves had then existed in Otsego County
for many years. In 1801 there were forty-three of
them. A good female slave cook was valued at
$200.
About 1820, farm hands were paid from $8 to
$11 per month; mechanics from $12 to $16;
men to work in the haying season 50 cents a day.
Hemlock lumber was worth $3.50 per thousand;
* Obadiah Sands, who had first settled on the Delaware at Deposit and
afterward lived in Franklin. He was the father of the late Frederick A.
Sands of Unadilla.
f Judge Sluman Wattles's account book.
397
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
pine shingles from 75 cents to $1.00 per bunch;
fire-wood, $1.00 a cord; a 3-year old steer from
$11 to $ 14; butter 8 cents per pound and whiskey
25 cents a gallon. For eggs and butter even so
late as 1837, the only returns were "store pay,"
and the same was true of corn, rye and oats, unless
hauled to a distillery, as was the common practice.
But even here, cash was not certain to be paid.
It is obvious that these frontier communities
became almost self-supporting. From the outer
world the things obtained were extremely few.
With a supply of sugar and salt, a family could
almost have subsisted on things that the soil and their
own ingenuity produced. The earliest traders and
settlers who learned from the Indians how from a
birch-tree a boat could be made in which to trans-
port food and domestic chattels received a lesson in
invention which they and many who came after
them were to find useful all their lives. Necessity
truly became the mother of invention when the
hollowed-out piece of a tree, or a sap-trough was
employed to rock one's offspring to sleep in, or
when a man immigrating into a new wilderness
home, mounted on the back of an old horse, not
only his household goods, but his wife and children.
Men and women literally became jacks of all
trades. A fine example of development in this line
was Sluman Wattles, who was not only a farmer,
but a road builder, tailor, shoemaker, lumberman,
butcher, hatter, bricklayer, teacher, lawyer and
county judge. Another example was Joseph
Sleeper, farmer, Quaker preacher, surveyor, mill-
wright, carpenter, stone-mason and blacksmith ; and
still another, Jedediah Peck, who was farmer, lawyer,
millwright, preacher, politician and county judge.
398
"STILL GLIDES THE STREAM''
A blacksmith could not only make shoes for horses,
but to him the farmer went for hoes, pitchforks and
rakes. Even ploughs could here be made, and a
man could turn the sod all day with a yoke of oxen
controlled by a harness constructed of bark from an
elm-tree. Trees in the forest untouched by the axe
were employed as supports for looms set up under
the open sky. In conditions such as these were
developed motive forces in men and women that
have made communities strong and states powerful.
Since that period times indeed have changed.
Fortunate it is that men and women have changed
also — fortunate for them and the world. A new
and broader life, though one not quite so heroic,
but a life with something of sweetness and refine-
ment unknown to that conquering generation, has
come in, while the old order has been rolled away as
a scroll. Throughout this land for more than ioo
years peace has dwelt. Gone is that warfare with
Indians and Tories ; gone are those titanic strug-
gles with nature. As the railway has superseded the
stage-coach and freight-wagon, so did they in their
turn supplant the " battoe " and the ark. Some-
thing of life, too, has departed — that full and
strenuous life which to those times belonged.
Nature alone remains unaltered. Scarcely changed
in aspect stand these hills, more beautiful to eyes
born among them than any others the world con-
tains ; and the blue sky, the storms of winter and
summer, the clouds that now threaten disaster, that
now give promise of glorious day — all these remain
as once they were. Throughout the landscape, from
Lake Otsego down to Old Oghwaga (as throughout
another scene, indeed, from where, for half a cen-
399
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
tury, frowned the ramparts of Fort Stanwix to where
the colossal Capitol keeps watch and ward), ever
winding across that glorious panorama, ever silent,
as great natures often are, in its potent and benefi-
cent sway,
I see what was, and is, and will abide ;
Still glides the stream, and shall forever glide.
400
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Sprague, W. B. : Annals of the American Pulpit. 9 vols., 8vo.
1857-1869.
Stedman, C. : History of the American War. 2 vols. London,
1794.
Stone, W. L. : Life of Joseph Brant. 2 vols., 8vo. New York,
1838.
Stone, W. L., Sr. and Jr. : Life of Sir William Johnson. 2 vols.,
8vo. Albany, 1865.
Swinnerton, Rev. Dr. H. U. : Historical Account of the Pres-
byterian Church at Cherry Valley. Cherry Valley, 1876.
Talleyrand, Prince de : Memoirs of. Edited by the Duke de
Broglie. 5 vols., 8vo. New York, 1891.
Thompson. A. C. : Protestant Missions; Their Rise and Early
Progress. New York, 1894.
Thompson, B. T. : History of Long Island. 2 vols., 8vo. New
York, 1839.
Trumbull, J. H. (Editor) : Memorial History of Hartford County,
Connecticut. 2 vols., quarto. Boston, 1886.
Tuckerman, Bayard : Life of Peter Stuyvesant. i6mo. New
York, 1893.
Van Hovenburgh, Rudolphus: Journal of. Printed in the
Journals of the Sullivan Expedition. Auburn, 1887.
Vasseller, E. : Interview with Hudson Sleeper. Printed in the
Oneonta Herald.
Wager, David E. : Descriptive History of Oneida County. 8vo.
Boston History Co. 1896.
Washington, George: Writings of. Edited by W. C. Ford.
14 vols., 8vo. New York, 1893.
Weiser, G. Z. : Life of John Conrad Weiser. i2mo. Reading,
1876.
Weld, Isaac : Travels Through the States of North America. 2
vols., i2mo. London, 1799.
409
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Wheelock, Rev. Dr. Eleazur : Memoir of. By David Mc-
Clure and Elijah Parish. Newburyport, 1811.
Wheelock, Rev. Dr. Eleazur : Narrative of the Indian Char-
ity School at Lebanon, Connecticut. With continuations. i6mo.
Boston, 1762-1765.
Wilkinson, J. B. : Annals of Binghamton. Binghamton, 1840.
Williamson, : Settlement of the Genesee Country. New
York, 1797-
Willett, W. W. : Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel
Marinus Willett. 8vo. New York, 1831.
Winsor, Justin : Narrative and Critical History of America. 8
vols., large 8vo. Boston, 1889.
Worth, G. A. : Random Recollections of Albany. 8vo. Albany,
1856.
Yawger, R. N. : The Indian and the Pioneer. 8vo. Syracuse,
1893.
MANUSCRIPTS
The subjoined list embraces material not existing in
printed form. In many ways it has shed new and impor-
tant light on the history of this frontier.
Bissell, Daniel, and Guido, L. : Account books, papers, etc., in
possession of Mrs. Sumner (Harriet Bissell), of Norwich.
Brant, Joseph : Letter to Colonel Bolton, written at Oghwaga,
July, 1779. In Spark's coll. of MSS. at Harvard.
Clinton, Governor George : Manuscripts of, in 48 vols. Large
folio. In State Library at Albany.
Coad, J. Francis, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland : Papers of, land
and other, pertaining to the Otego patent.
Draper, Lyman Copeland : Brant Manuscripts in Library of
the Wisconsin Hist. Society, Madison. 23 vols., folio. Ex-
amined in the summer of 1900 through courtesy of the librarian,
Reuben Gold Thwaites.
Hayes' Papers : Account books, documents, etc., pertaining to
the firm of Noble & Hayes.
Heckewelder, Rev. John : Manuscript in the Historical Soci-
ety of Pennsylvania.
Johnson, Sir William: Papers of in 25 vols. Large folio. In
State Library at Albany.
Johnston, William S. : History of the Susquehanna Valley. A
fragment. A copy of some parts in MS. exists in library of
Wisconsin Hist. Soc.
410
BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC.
Journal relating to Unadilla Valley. In possession of Alexander
W. Russell, of Westborough, Mass.
New York State Colonial Manuscripts and Land Papers. 63 vols.,
large Folio. 1643-1803. In office of Secretary of State, Al-
bany.
Otsego County : Land Records of. In County Clerk's office,
Cooperstown, where researches were made gratuitously for the
author by Lee B. Cruttenden while County Clerk.
Smith & Wells : Notes of a tour to the head of the Susquehanna
in 1769. Manuscript copy purchased by author at sale of the
library of late Dr. George H. Moore, Superintendent of the
Lenox Library. The original is owned by Mr. Coad, a de-
scendant of Mr. Smith. Quarto, 100 pages.
Unadilla Town Records. 5 vols., folio. Beginning in 1797.
Warren, Captain Benjamin : Diary of. In Spark's Coll., Har-
vard University.
Wattles, Sluman : Day-book and Court Records of, for years
before 1800. In possession of Edwin R. Wattles, Sidney
Centre.
Whiting, Major Daniel: Letter written at Cherry Valley in
November, 1778. Now in Spark's Coll. at Harvard University.
A Few of the Many
The individuals who, by letter or interviews during a
period of many years, have kindly responded to the author's
appeals, make an extended list. Among them should at
least be named the following : The late William Kelby, for
many years Librarian, and Robert H. Kelby, now Librarian
of the New York Historical Society ; Thomas J. Titus,
Assistant Librarian of the Mercantile Library ; Thomas E.
Benedict, formerly Deputy Secretary of State ; Hugh Hast-
ings, State Historian ; Charles W. Hooper, Land Clerk in
the office of the Secretary of State at Albany ; the late
George R. Howell, Archivist of the State Library ; Lee V.
Cruttenden, formerly County Clerk of Otsego County ; the
late Perry P. Rogers, of Binghamton ; the Rev. Dr. H. U.
Swinnerton, and the late John L. Sawyer, of Cherry Val-
ley ; William E. Roscoe, of Carlisle, Schoharie County ;
Harrison W. Nanny, of Goshen ; the late James C. Pill-
ing, of the Smithsonian Institution ; Samuel M. Shaw, of
411
THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER
Cooperstown ; A. J. F. Van Laer, Sublibrarian, in charge of
the Manuscripts in the State Library ; Rufus A. Grider, of
Canajoharie ; the late Douglas Campbell and John Henry
Johnston, of New York ; the late Clark I. Hayes, of Una-
dilla ; the late D. P. Loomis, Supervisor, and Chester K.
Belknap, Town Clerk, of Unadilla ; Edwin R. Wattles, of
Sidney Centre ; the late Ira E. Sherman and the late Will-
iam A. Fry, of Sidney ; the Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, of
Baldwinsville, N. Y. ; and Pere N. Burtin, of Caughna-
waga, Canada.
4 I2
BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC.
A Personal Note
It seems proper to add a few lines here, as to the circum-
stances in which this volume was written. In the summer
of 1890 my father, Gaius Leonard Halsey, M.D., of Una-
dilla, wrote for the Unadilla Times a series of papers giving
reminiscences of his life in that village for fifty years. He
had long been in failing health, and in the following Feb-
ruary we laid him away in the village churchyard.
While undertaking to republish his reminiscences in
pamphlet form, I began to write an introduction, setting
forth events in village history previous to his arrival there
in 1840. In this way I literally stumbled upon the events
set forth in this volume. Born and reared in Unadilla, I
had grown to manhood and been many years out of college,
without gaining more than a shadowy impression of those
events. Brant's name was known, and I had heard of an
interview between him and General Herkimer, but I knew
definitely nothing else in Brant's career. Of the massacre
of Cherry Valley I had heard, but why, or when, or how it
happened, I did not know.
These facts embraced the sole stock of information I had
concerning the early history of this frontier. The genera-
tion to which I belong had grown up ignorant of the stirring
history of their own valley, simply because nothing had been
published about it in their time, and the early chronicles had
become scarce books. I then set about collecting material
for a detailed record, including the annals of the village from
its settlement down to 1840, and in the course of nearly
ten years brought together a mass of material from a great
variety of sources.
Its publication as a local history was planned, but about
a year ago I decided to extract from the larger mass so much
as might be presumed to have wider interest, and to seek to
have it made public through a regular publishing house, re-
serving the purely local matter for issue in some other way.
Index
Index
Abbott, William, 358
Abraham, Mohawk chief, 22
Afton, islands near, 27, 275 ; Gould
Bacon settles on one of, 345
Agwrondougwas, Peter, a converted
Indian, 68
Alagatinga, an Indian chief, his
grave, 24
Albany, as a trading post, 8, 32, 34;
Indians cheated at, 39 ; plate in St.
Peter's Church at, 49 ; council at,
56 ; Congress of, 63 ; trade of, in
danger, 88 ; conference at, with Ind-
ians, 152 ; inhabitants of, preparing
for flight, 302 ; Brant visits. 323
Albout, settlement of, 134; Colonel
William Butler at, 234; General
Clinton burns, 275
Alden, Colonel Ichabod, arrives in
Cherry Valley, 223 ; sends out
scouting party, 240; killed, 241,
242 ; blamed for massacre, 245 ;
his grave, 246
Alger, Stoughton, 24, 129
Alsop, George, describes Susque-
hanna Indians, 17
Andrews, Rev. William, missionary,
48
Andrustown, destroyed by Brant,
211
Anne of Austria, 45
Anne, Queen, aids Palatines, 36;
aids missionaries, 50
Arnold, General Benedict, relieves
Fort Schuyler, 193; Walter But-
ler's conviction under, 239 ; treason
of, 295 ; meets Talleyrand in Eng-
land, 369
Ashley, Mrs. B. , an interpreter, 5s,
56
Avery, John, 342
Avery, Revs. Henry and Peter, 80
Bacon, Gould, 343; his adventure
in a freshet, 345
Bacon, Rev. James, 347, 373
Bainbridge, Turnpike from, to Eso-
pus, 176 ; Colonel Timothy Church
settles in, 342, 350 ; land values in,
394
Baits, David, 345, 397
Ballard, Captain, goes out from
Cherry Valley as a scout, 224
Ballston burned, 300
Banyar, Gouldsborough, at the Al-
bany Congress, 64 ; real owner of
the Wallace patent, 11 1 ; sketch of,
112-114 ; at Sir William Johnson's
funeral, 162, 344, 345
Barclay, Rev. Henry, missionary, 50
Bateaux, description of, 121
Baxter, Levi, his mill site, 133, 342
Beach, A. H., 397
Beach, Ebenezer, 352
Beach, Timothy, 343; reaches the
Ouleout, 347 ; his adventures, 350 ;
his untimely fate, 352
Beach, William, 353
Beals, Abraham and Jacob, settle on
the Susquehanna, 334
Beardsley, Levi, his Reminiscences,
125 ; describes Colonel Alden's
grave when opened, 247; settles
in Richfield, 343
Beatty, Lieutenant Erkuries, 261;
his account of Clinton's descent of
the Susquehanna, 274
Beaumetz, , visits the Susque-
hanna with Talleyrand, 368, 369,
370
Beletre, , destroys German Flats,
123
Bennington, battle of, 189
Benton, Caleb, 382, 383
Benton, Stephen, lands of, 109, 354,
382, 397
Betts, John M., 352
Betts, Samuel, 342
Bibliography, 403
Biddle, Joseph, 127
Binghamton, hostile Indians at, 66,
72, 352; first settlement of, 135,
354 ; Talleyrand at, 369
Bissell, Daniel, as aboy, 341, 353, 396
Bissell, Guido L. , 353, 396
Bleeker, Captain Johannus, 35, 274
Bloomville, Scotch-Irish at, 348
Bolton, Colonel , commands
Fort Niagara, 266
Bostwick, David, 383
Boswell, James, friend to Brant in
London, 158
Boyd, Lieutenant Thomas, his hor-
rible death, 282
Braddock, General Edward, defeat
of, 65
Bradley Farm, meeting place of Her-
kimer and Brant, 179
Bradley, Peter, 343
Bradstreet, Gen. John, his lands on
the Susquehanna, 169
Bradt, Arendt, his patent, 94
417
INDEX
Brainerd, David, missionary, 52
Brant, Indians of that name, 158
Brant, Joseph, portrait of, frontis-
piece ; student at Lebanon, 70,
121,; at Ft. Niagara and Lake
George, 74 ; interpreter to mission-
aries, 76; teaches Kirkland the
Mohawk tongue, 78 ; visitor at
Sleeper's house, 128 ; guide to
Smith and Wells, 129, 141-142 ;
home in Canajoharie, 140 ; his wife,
144 ; reply to Dr. Wheelock, 149 ;
early life of, 157-161 ; goes to Lon-
don, 162-164; social success in
London, 165 ; on Staten Island,
165 ; described, 166 ; goes to Ogh-
waga, 168 ; proposed apprehension
of, 169 ; invades Mohawk Valley,
172 ; extent of his authority, 173,
184 ; at Unadilla, 173 ; disperses
the Unadilla settlement, 173-175 ;
aided by Tories at Unadilla, 176 ;
interview with Herkimer at Una-
dilla, 178-184 ; his loyalty to the
King, 180 ; starts for Oswego, 185 ;
ambushes Herkimer at Oriskany,
190; preparing to attack Cherry
Valley, 204 ; returns to the Sus-
quehanna, 207; at Cobleskill,2o8;
at Cherry Valley, 208-209 ; on the
Charlotte River, 210; burns Spring-
field, 211; with Butlerat Chemung,
212; causes Wormwood's death,
208, 213; means to "fight the cruel
rebels," 214; in the Old England
district, 214 ; goes to Tioga Point,
215 ; collects provisions for But-
ler, 215 ; expedition of, to Lacka-
waxen, 215 ; not at Wyoming,
216 ; intends to attack Cherry
Valley, 224, 225 ; destroys Ger-
man Flats, 225-227 ; returns to
Unadilla, 226 ; invades Minisink,
237 ; granddaughter of killed, 237 ;
induced to go to Cherry Valley,
239; regrets killing of Wells fami-
ly, 241 ; restraining influence of, at
Cherry Valley, 247 ; kills a man
for lying, 248 ; saves the life of a
Mason, 248; at Sleeper's Mills,
250 ; portrait of, facing 158 ; tries
to win over Oneidas and Tuscaro-
ras, 263 ; at Oghwaga waiting for
Clinton, 265 ; goes to the Mohawk,
269; goes to Newtown, 278; ready
for battle, 279 ; described in action,
279 ; his skilful retreat at Newtown,
280; surprises Captain Harper,
288 ; invades Ulster, 289 ; his hu-
manity, 290 ; starts from Niagara,
291 ; at Fort Schuyler, 292 ; de-
stroys Canajoharie, 293 ; collecting
his forces, 296 ; captures men sent
out from Fort Schuyler, 299 ;
scouts of, on the Mohawk, 302 ; in
battle on Summit Lake, 305 ; takes
cattle on the Mohawk, 309 ; orders
horse killed for food, 311 ; secures
lands for Indians after the war,
318; second visit to London, 320;
entertained by the Prince of
Wales, 321 ; his native dignity il-
lustrated in London, 321 ; his home
in Canada, 322 ; in Philadelphia
and Albany, 323; letter from, about
his school days, 324 ; his death,
324 ; his character, 325-327
Brant, King, Joseph's grandfather,
158
Brant, Mollie, 157 ; marries Sir
William Johnson, 159 ; her son
William, 179
Brant, Nikus, 157
Brantford, home of Joseph Brant
there, 322
Brant-Sero, J. O., in London, 322
Breck, Samuel, 369
Bressani, Joseph, priest among the
Iroquois, 45
Brink, Aaron, 335
Brooks settlement, 212
Brown, Col. , killed at Stone
Arabia. 298
Brown, Squire , settles on the
Unadilla, 123
Bruehle, Stephen, visits the Susque-
hanna, 33
Bruyar, Jacques, 44
Bryant, William C. of Buffalo, his
estimate of Brant, 325
Buck Island, forces gathered at, 265 ;
Sir John Johnson at, 296 ; an ex-
pedition to, 303 ; Major Ross sails
from, 305
Bull, Capt, , a Tory, 179
Bundy, Capt, Peter, settles in Otego,
130
Burgoyne, Gen. John, his campaign,
185 ; captures Fort Ticonderoga,
188 ; his progress checked, 189 ;
his surrender, 194
Burhans, Rev. Daniel, 374
Burnet, Governor William, young
men sent to Oghwaga by, 38 ;
builds fort at Oswego, 186
Burr, Aaron, introduces Brant to his
daughter, 323 ; and the political
wars of Otsego County, 367
Burr, Theodosia, entertains Brant,
323
18
INDEX
Bush, Elnathan, 345
Butler, Col. John, his patent, 103;
commands Scotch Highlanders,
150 ; forbids Indians to injure set-
tlements, 171; at Oriskany, 190;
his Rangers, 203 ; treaty with
Indians, 204 ; to join Brant, 210,
211 ; at Tioga Point, 215 ; goes to
Wyoming, 218 ; Pennamites with
him at Wyoming, 220 ; regrets
killing of Wells family, 241 ; at
Newtown, 278 ; responsibility for
Lieut. Boyd's death, 283; sails
from Niagara, 291 ; invades the
Mohawk, 292; lands of, confis-
cated, 337
Butler, Capt. Walter, organizes
Cherry Valley Massacre, 239 ;
his barbarity at Cherry Valley,
249 ; at Newtown, 278 ; killed, 306-
3°7
Butler, Col. William, in command
in Schoharie, 229-230 ; destroys
Unadilla and Oghwaga. 234-236 ;
starts to relieve Cherry Valley,
243 ; dams the lake at Coopers-
town, 260 ; commands light infan-
try, under Gen. Clinton, 272 ; de-
stroys Indian villages on Cayuga
Lake, 281 ; futility of his expe-
dition to the Susquehanna, 314
Butler, Col. Zebulon, commands
Forty Fort at Wyoming, 218
Butternut Creek, settlers on, 122,
127,212; Tories on, 224 ; prisoners
taken on, 227; Gen. Morris's ar-
rival on, 366
Butts, Jacob, 342
Caldwell, Capt. , commands
the enemy at German Flatts,
228
Campbell, Douglas, 118
Campbell, James, his coming to
America, 120
Campbell, Col. Samuel, his house
fortified, 168 ; succeeds Herkimer
in command at Oriskany, 192, 238 ;
returns to Cherry Valley, 333
Campbell, Mrs. Samuel, a prisoner
at Cherry Valley, 250 ; at Kana-
dasaga, 252
Campbell, Thomas, Brant wrongly
put into his " Gertrude," 216
Campbell, W. W., his "Annals," 4;
sketch of, 21-44 : his father at the
Cherry Valley massacre, 243 ; his
account of Walter Butler's death,
307 ; reflections of, on the fate of
the Iroquois, 317
Canadurango, Lake, settlements at,
124 ; scout on, ^25 ; beaver dam at,
261
Canajoharie, chapel at, 51 ; Brant's
home at, 140, 157, 160 ; patriots at,
148 ; Gen. Herkimer at, with his
militia, 178 ; Gen. Clinton at, 258 ;
destroyed by Brant, 293 ; men
killed at, 302 ; Col. Willett at, 303
Washington visits, 333
Cannon, Mrs., put to death. 250
Carleton, Col. Guy, burns Ballston,
300
Carleton Island. See Buck Island
Carr, John, builds mill on Carr's
Creek, 133 ; aids Brant, 174
Carr, Percefer, settles in Edmeston,
123 ; Brant seeks food from, 183 :
aids Tories, 212-213 ; made a
prisoner, 226 ; Father Nash in his
home, 376
Carr's Creek, 133, 351
Case, Samuel H., 380
Catherinetown, destroyed by the
Sullivan Expedition, 280
Catskill Turnpike, 114 ; beginning of,
138, 354 ; a great highway, 379-391
Catskill, 384
Caughnawaga, invaded by Sir John
Johnson, 291 ; devastation of com-
pleted, 298
Caughnawaga, Canada, Mohawks
living near, 319
Cayuga Lake, Indian villages on
destroyed, 281
Cayugas, drawn into the war, 184
Chamberlain, Ivory, 378
Champlain, Samuel de, at Oswego,
186
Charlotte River, origin of the name,
30 ; Palatines make canoes on, 37 ;
Sir William Johnson's patent on,
no ; Brant on, 210 ; rafts made at
mouth of, for prisoners, 251 ; Sir
John Johnson at mouth of, 297 :
lands on, confiscated, 337 ; road to,
from the Hudson, 379, 388
Chatham. Earl of, on the employ-
ment of Indians in the war, 164
Chemung, Brant with Butler at, 212;
Sullivan expedition at, 278
Chemung River, rise in, after open-
ing the dam at Otsego Lake, 272
Chenang, destroyed by Gen. Clinton,
276. See Binghamton
Cherry Valley, Gideon Hawley at,
66 ; during the French war, 67 ;
Lindesay's patent at, 93 ; settled
by Scotch-Irish, 119-121 ; roads
to and from, 138-139 ; the church
419
INDEX
at, 140, 373 ; meeting of patriots
in, 148 ; alarmed by news from
Oghwaga, 166 ; Campbell house
fortified at, 168; families arrive at,
from Unadilla, 174; Col. Van
Schaick goes to, with militia, 177 ;
Herkimer returns to, 182 ; petition
from, to Gov. Clinton, 204 ; to be
attacked, 204-205 ; fort built at,
206 ; Brant invited to, 212 ; an
expedition to, planned, 216, 224,
225 ; Col. Alden arrives in, 223 ;
massacre of, 238-252 ; failure of
authorities to defend, 239-240 ; the
fort at, 245 ; monument at, facing
238 ; second massacre of, 302 ;
Washington visits, 333 ; William
Cooper arrives at, 357 ; on the
Great Western Turnpike, 382
Choconut, destroyed by Gen.
Clinton, 276
Chonobote, destroyed by the Sulli-
van expedition, 281
Christiansen, Capt., 32
Church, Col. Timothy, settles in
Bainbridge, 342
Clarke, George, his home on Otsego
Lake, 94
Clarke, George, Lieut-Gov. 93
Claus, Col. Daniel, at Oswego, 185;
letter from to Brant, 326
Clinton, Gov. George, his papers, 5;
petition to, 204 ; criticises Gen.
Gates, 222 ; advises sending mili-
tia to Unadilla, 229 ; advises
destruction of Oghwaga, 233 ; cor-
respondence as to Gates, 255-257 ;
sends Col. Gansevoort to Fort
Schuyler, 293 ; suggest forts on the
frontier, 315 ; visits Cherry Valley,
Clinton, Gen. James, on the Susque-
hanna, 4 ; his brigade of the Sulli-
van expedition, 258 ; builds dam at
Otsego Lake, 260 ; sends Col. Van
Schaick to Onondaga, 263 ; starts
for Tioga Point, 271 ; portrait of,
facing 272 ; descent of the Susque-
hanna by, 271-277; reaches Tioga
Point, 276
Clyde, Col. Samuel, goes to Una-
dilla with Herkimer, 177 ; makes a
report, 209, 227 ; at Oriskany, 238 ;
on the destruction of Canajoharie,
293
Clyde, Dr. James D., 238
Cobleskill, Banyar's lands in, 112 ;
battle of, 207-208 ; attacked, 305
Cockburn, William, 109
Colden, Alexander, surveyor, 109
Colden, Cadwalader, report of, on
the Susquehanna, 38 ; and the land
grievances of the Mohawks, 161
Collier, Isaac and Peter, 332
Colliers, Indians captured at, 172 ;
Gen. Clinton at, 273-274
Cone, the brothers, 342
Conkey, Rev. Alexander, 373
Connecticut, emigration from, to
frontier, 388 ; ancestral roots in,
339> 34°. 34 2 '• people from, in
Cooperstown, 358
Continental road, not opened by
Gen. Clinton, 259
Conway, Gen. Thomas, warnings
reach him from the frontier, 221
Cookoze. See Deposit
Cooper, J. Fenimore, his " Chron-
icles of Cooperstown," 5 ; his early
home, 104; his "Wyandotte,"
112 ; arrives on Otsego Lake, 358,
portrait of, facing 258 ; his writ-
ings, 360
Cooper, Judge William, goes to
Otsego Lake, 104; his work in
settling the frontier, 357-364 ;
Talleyrand his guest, 369 ; cost of
his lands, 395
Cooperstown, site of an Indian re-
sort, 21-23 ! George Croghan's
lands at, 103 ; settled by Croghan,
126, 140-141 ; Gen. Clinton at,
261 ; settlers in from Connecticut,
343, 351 ; Talleyrand visits, 369 ;
church at, 373 ; graves of Father
Nash and Cooper at, 378
Corlear (or Van Curler), Arendt,
saves Father Jogues, 45
Corn Planter, the, co-operating with
Brant, 296 ; kindness of, to his
white father, 299
Cornwallis, Gen. Lord, his sur-
render, 208
Cosby's Manor Patent, 93
Council Rock, 21
Cox, Col. Ebenezer, angry words
with Brant, 181 ; killed at Oris-
kany, 190
Crafts, Capt. Samuel, 344
Croghan, Col. George, his Otsego
patent, 103 : settles on, 126, 140-
141 : note of unpaid, 169-170 ;
Gen. Clinton on the site of his
home, 261 ; loses his Otsego lands,
357
Crosby, Rev. Aaron, missionary,
81
Crysler, Adam, at Wyoming, 218,
219 ; goes to Vroomansville, 294 ;
in battle at Summit Lake, 306
420
INDEX
Cully, Matthew, settles on the Sus-
quehanna, 126 ; Gen. Clinton at
his farm, 273 ; returns to his farm,
334
Cunahunta, an Oneida village, 27,
143 ; destroyed by Col. William
Butler, 235 ; Gen. Clinton at, 274-
275
Currietown burned, 304
Cusick, David, his " History of the
Six Nations," 25
Cutting, Leonard M., 395
Dakazenensere, Isaac, 77
Dartmouth College, origin of, 82 ;
Brant sends his sons to, 323
Dartmouth, Earl of, employment of
Indians in the war, 151
Deane, James, as interpreter, 80 ; as
an Indian Commissioner, 210 ; at
Otsego Lake, 262
De Forest, family of, settle on
the Unadilla River, 123; Capt.
Abel, 343
Delaware, the settlements on, in-
vaded, 201 ; Brant gets supplies
on, 207
Delaware County, western boundary
of, 102
Delaware Indians, party of, captured
on the Susquehanna, 74
Dellius, Rev. Dr. Godfriedus,
among the Mohawks, 47
Demesses camp, Gen. Clinton at,
273
Dennison, Col., his agreement
broken, 238
Depew, Chauncey M., 393
Deposit, formerly Cookoze, 101-102 ;
Brant at, 237 ; railroad at, 390
Dickinson, Daniel S., 356
Diefendorf, Jacob, alive on his own
grave, 304
Dietz, Capt., his family murdered,
305 ; his sufferings as a prisoner,
3 11
Dongan, Governor Thomas, his in-
terest in the Susquehanna, 34 ;
secures missionaries, 46 ; thwarts
William Penn, 88-92
Donnelly, Terence, 383
Doxstader, John, commands Tories
at Torlock, 304 ; a colt he lost,
Dunlop, Rev. Samuel, brings Scotch-
Irish to Cherry Valley, 120; his
church there, 140; escapes the
massacre, 244
Dunnavan, Anthony, shot as a de-
serter, 262
Dusler, John, his affidavit as to Her-
kimer and Brant, 181
Dutch, the, as fur traders, 7, 87
Dwight, Rev. Dr. Timothy, his
anecdote of Sir William Johnson
and King Hendrick, 96; visits the
Catskill Turnpike, 383-387
East Sidney, 349, 355
Edmeston, settlers in, 122, 123 ;
three men killed at, 225
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan; interest
in the Indians, 52, 54 ; at Stock-
bridge, 56 ; hears from Gideon
Hawlev, 65
Edwards, Jonathan, Jr., at Oghwaga,
64
Eghwagy, Creek, white men reach,
35
Elerson, David, adventure of near
Otsego Lake, 260 : with the Sul-
livan expedition, 283
Ellison, William, 357
Elm Grove, settled, 127
English, the, as fur traders, 8
Erie Canal, 369
Erie Railway, 389, 391
Esopus, turnpike to, 176 ; prisoners
taken near, 293
Esther, Queen, at Wyoming, 219
E Tow O Koam, King of the River
Indians in 1710 ; portrait of, facing
158
Fenn, Rev. S., of Harpersfield, 172
Ferguson, William, 128
Fisher, Col. , his failure to re-
lieve Cherry Valley, 246
Forbes, Rev. Eli, at Oghwaga, 69, 72
Forbes, Virginia Isabel, the author's
wife, dedication to, iii
Ford, Lieut. -Col. Jacob, sends out
scouting parties, 213
Fort Dayton, 226 ; scalps taken at,
264; attacked, 295
Fort Herkimer, 226 ; troops at, 305
Fort Hunter, mission at, 49, 59 ;
patent at, 92 ; Sir John Johnson
at, 297
Fort Niagara, winter headquarters
for Indians and Tories, 187 ; Brant
at, 263 ; prisoners taken to, 289,
3°S
Fort Orange, 8, 32
Fort Oswego, British forces gathered
at, 185 ; an ancient rendezvous,
186; attack from expected, 202;
view of, facing 186; the enemy at,
291, 309; Willett attempts capture
of, 309 ; Indians dismissed at, 310
42:
INDEX
Fort Plank, 264
Fort Schuyler, new name for Fort
Stanwix, 187 ; invested by St.
Leger, 188 ; St. Leger's flight
from, 194; Indians hovering about,
288 ; the enemy at, 292 ; suffering
at, 300 ; its barracks burned, 302 ;
abandoned, 305; settlement planted
near, 339
Fort Stanwix, treaty of, 99-103 ; re-
named Fort Schuyler, 187, which
see ; 399
Forty Fort, besieged at Wyoming,
218, 238
Fox, Charles James, gives Brant a
snuff-box, 320
Franchots, settle Louisville, 127
Franklin, Benjamin, 7 ; his Plan of
Union 63 ; at the treaty of Fort
Stanwix, 100 ; scalp story attributed
to, 3I3-3U
Franklin, Col. William Butler in,
234 ; Sluman Wattles settles in,
34 8 , 355. 373- 3^4
Franklin, William, 348, 357
Frederic, Harold, his " In the Val-
ley," 249
Frontenac, Count Louis de Buode,
burns Schenectady, 92 ; at Os-
wego, 186
Fuller, Abraham, builds mills on the
Ouleout, 135, 355
Gaine, Hugh, 108
Gano, Rev. John, chaplain of Gen-
eral Clinton's brigade, 262 ; ac-
count of departure from Otsego
Lake, 271-272
Gansevoort, Colonel Peter, com-
mands Fort Schuyler, 188 ; an-
nounces attack on Cherry Valley
as planned, 240 ; sent to Fort
Schuyler, 293
Gates, General Horatio, neglect of
frontier by, 221 ; responsibility for
neglect, 255
Gathtsewarohare, destroyed by the
Sullivan expedition, 281
Genesee country, Sullivan's expe-
dition in, 281 ; New England men
settle in, 338
Geneva. See Kanadesaga
George III, views as to Fort Stan-
wix treaty, 102 ; receives Brant,
320
George IV entertains Brant, 321
Germaine, Lord George, Brant's in-
terviews with, 162-164
German Flatts, massacre and burn-
ing of, 67, 123 ; conference at with
Indians, 73 ; patriots of, 148 ; ren-
dezvous of General Herkimer, 189;
Arnold's relief force at, 193 ; scalp-
ing parties near, 213 ; warnings as
to attack on, 223 ; Brant destroys,
225-226; the enemy at, 288, 302;
lands of Colonel Guy Johnson at,
confiscated, 337 ; influx of settlers
to, 339
Gilbert, Abijah, 368
Gilbertsville, 368
Glasford, , a Tory, 235, 236,
275
Good Peter, chief of the Oneidas, 54;
as a missionary, 68, 69
Goodyear, Jared, 343
Goodyear Mills, 23
Gordon, Dowager Duchess of, 127
Gould, Jay, his " History of Dela-
ware County," 5, 120
Guild, Israel, 357
Grand River, lands of Mohawks on.
319
" Grant, Rev. Mr.," 376
Grants, New Hampshire, General
Stark's attention to, 257, 341
Gray, Captain William, his map, 130;
describes the destruction of Ogh-
waga, 235
Great Inland River, 19, 332
Greene, Talleyrand visits, 369
Groesbeck, John, his patent, 94
Haldimand, Sir Frederick,
promises to the Indians, 150 ;
"scalp story," 315
Halsey. Gaius Leonard, 388, 413
Halsey, Matthew, 344
Hamilton, Alexander, 368
Hancock, John, 151
Hand, General Edward, fails to pro-
tect Cherry Valley, 239-240, 244,
246 ; visits Cherry Valley after the
war, 333
Handsome Brook, Colonel William
Butler's camp at its mouth, 236
Hanford, Uriah, 397
Hanna, William, goes to Unadilla
with Herkimer, 178 ; his hotel, 385,
386, 387
Hare, Lieutenant Henry, hanged as
a spy, 258
Harper, family of, settle in Cherry
Valley, 120 ; settle in Harpers-
field, 131 ; return to Harpersfield,
334
Harper, Captain Alexander, reports
as to the enemy, 214 ; taken by
Brant, 288 ; a chief saves his life,
290 ; opening roads, 380
INDEX
Harper, Colonel John, at school in
Lebanon, 121 ; vigilance commit-
tee formed in his house, 149; sent
to Oghwaga, 169-171 ; captures
Indians at Colliers, 171 ; at the in-
terview between Brant and Her-
kimer, 179 ; raises a company of
light horse, 201 ; to raise state
troops, 206 ; secures squadron of
cavalry from Albany, 216 ; de-
stroys Skoiyase, 281 ; watches Sir
John Johnson, 296 ; relations with
Indians after the war, 324 ; lands
of, 348
Harper, Captain William, his pat-
ent, 143 ; criticises Klock's con-
duct at Cherry Valley, 246
Harpersfield, patent at, 131 ; vigil-
ance committee formed at, 149 ;
alarm at, 177 ; in Tory hands, 201 ;
troops wanted at, 221 ; burned by
Brant, 289; settled again, 355
Hartford County, Conn., 339
Hartley, Colonel, follows Butler
from Wyoming, 219 ; his action
one of the causes of the Cherry
Valley massacre, 229
Hartwick, John C, settles his pat-
ent, 125
Hastings, Hugh, State Historian,
his " Clinton Papers," 5
Hawley, Rev. Gideon, missionary,
23, 55 ; at Stockbridge, 57 ; goes
to Oghwaga, 58-62 ; war inter-
rupts his work, 63-67 ; labors else-
where, 68
Hayes, Isaac, 343, 354, 389
Heckewelder, Rev. John, definition
of the word Susquehanna, 18
Helmer, John A., gives warning to
German Flatts, 223
Hendrick, King, at school in Stock-
bridge, 56 ; anecdote of, 96
Hendrickson, 33
Herkimer, Abraham, 183
Herkimer, George, 183
Herkimer, Henry, his farm, 124, 212
Herkimer, General Nicholas, a
Palatine, 38 ; sent to Unadilla,
177; interview with Brant, 178-184;
calls out militia, 189; advance on
Fort Schuyler, 190 ; at the battle
of Oriskany, 190-192 ; wounded,
190; his death, 192
Herkimer County rapidly peopled,
339
Hicks, John, 128
Himmel, Baltus, 335
Hiokatoo, commands Senecas at
Cherry Valley, 240, 247
Hotchkiss, Lemuel, 383
Honeoye, destroyed by the Sullivan
expedition, 281
Honeyost, letters of, 83 ; eloquence
of, 84
Houck flat, Herkimer's camp on,
179
Houghtaling, Abraham, 335
Howe, Sir William, sails for Ameri-
ca, 165 ; Brant serves under, 168
House, John, captured by Brant,
269
Howard, Lord, of Effingham, 89
Hudson, Henry, 6
Hughston, James, 341, 349
Hughston, Jonas, 349
Hunt, Menad, 380
Hunt, Ransom, 342, 395
Huntington, Gurdon, 353
Ingaren, destroyed by General
Clinton, 276
Iroquois, the greatest of all Indians,
11 ; their coming to New York,
12 ; fort of, facing 12 ; their league,
13 ; their imperial domain, 14 ;
never a numerous people, 15 ;
their frontier lands, 16 ; trails of,
29 ; chiefs of, in London, 35, 50 ;
Jesuit priests among, 43-47 ; Eng-
lish missionaries to, 47-51 ; Elihu
Spencer's labor among, 53 ; Gid-
eon Hawley's, 56-68 ; four west-
ern nations leaving the English,
69; Dr. Wheelock's interest in,
69-72, 76-79, 82 ; last missions
among, 80-84 ; message from, to
Charles II, 90; at the Fort Stan-
wix treaty, 99-103 ; their course in
the war, 149-156 ; land grievances
of, 163 ; meet Herkimer at Una-
dilla, 178 ; losses at Oriskany, 192:
revenge their motive in the border
wars, 195; council with, at Johns-
town, 205 ; why they helped de-
stroy Cherry Valley, 238; at
massacre of Cherry Valley, 239-
252 ; attack Lackawaxen, 264 ;
sent against Sullivan, 265 ; invade
Minisink, 266 ; towns of, destroyed
by Clinton, 276 ; at the battle of
Newtown, 279 ; Sullivan destroys
their villages, 28O-283 ; they lay
waste Schoharie and the Mohawk,
287-294 ; gather at Tioga Point,
296 ; the number of those who
served in the war, 310 ; abandoned
by the British, 310; their appall-
ing losses, 316 ; their help to Eng-
land in overthrowing France, 318 ;
423
INDEX
their homes after the war, 317-319;
great central trail of, 391
Ithaca, road to, from the Ouleout,
380
James II, 91
Jay, John, 367, 368
Jemison, Mary, 186, 187; describes
Hiokatoo, 247 ; quoted, 283 ; fur-
nishes food for Brant, 311
Jesuit missionaries, their devotion,
43 ; as political agents of France,
46, 318 ; Dongan's opposition to,
47
Jogues, Father Isaac, among the
Mohawks, 43 ; murdered, 45
Johnson, Mrs., 357
Johnson, Colonel Guy, succeeds
Sir William, 148; interferes with
missionaries, 149 ; removes to
Canada, 150 ; instructions to, from
England, 151 ; bills of, for enter-
tainment of Indians in London,
165 ; sends Brant to Oghwaga,
168 ; disagreement with Brant,
172 ; lands of, confiscated, 337
Johnson, Sir John, sent to Oghwaga,
75; attainted, no; his loyalty to
England, 152 ; at Oswego, 185 ;
his Royal Greens at Wyoming,
218 ; at Newtown, 278 ; expected
on the Mohawk, 288 ; his arrival
and work of destruction, 291 ; sends
Crysler to Schoharie, 294 ; his sec-
ond expedition to the Mohawk,
295-300 ; his lands confiscated,
338
Johnson, Sir William, sends traders
to Oghwaga, 39 ; portrait of, facing
40 ; builds chapel at Canajoharie,
51 ; his interest in missionaries, 53 ;
aids Gideon Hawley, 58 ; asked to
send no more rum to Indians, 62 ;
influence of with the Iroquois, 63,
196 ; at the battle of Lake George,
66; opposes further settlements,
71 ; convenes German Flatts con-
ference, 73 ; sends expedition
against hostile Indians, 74-75 ; his
Susquehanna patent, 95 ; his
"dreamland tract," 96-97 ; nego-
tiates treaty of Fort Stanwix, 99-
103 ; his lands in the Charlotte
Valley, no; his sudden death,
147 ; as to land grievances of the
Mohawks, 161 : marries Mollie
Brant, 159 ; Joseph Brant his inter-
preter, 160 ; his trading post at
Oswego, 186 ; his work at a critical
moment, 318
Johnson, William, a half-breed,
anecdote of, 79, 160, 179
Johnston, Hugh, saves a family at
Cherry Valley, 243 ; returns to
Sidney, 335
Johnston, Milton C, Brant's camp
on his farm, 179
Johnston, Witter, settles in Sidney
with his father, 133 ; returns to
Sidney, 335
Johnston, Rev. William, in the Mo-
hawk Valley, 58 ; buys land at Sid-
ney, in ; families follow him, 131 ;
his early history, 131 ; settles in
Sidney, 133-134; forced to aban-
don his settlement, 173-175 ; re-
turns to Unadilla with Herkimer,
177 ; asks for troops to be sent to
Cherry Valley, 204 ; preaches in
Cherry Valley, 224; escapes the
massacre, 243 ; chaplain of Colo-
nel Alden's regiment, 244 ; his
death, 335.
Johnston Settlement, 26, 133-134 ;
Colonel Harper at with a regiment,
170 ; destruction of, prevented, 172;
dispersed by Brant, 173-175 ; Her-
kimer's meeting at with Brant,
177-184 ; Butler at, 234. See Sid-
ney.
Johnstown, Councils at, 161, 205 ; Sir
John Johnson at, 291 ; Major Ross
overcome at, 306
Jones, Robert, affidavit of, 214
Josephine, Empress of France, 359
Kalm, Peter, 40
Kanadesaga, Cherry Valley massa-
cre celebrated at, 251 ; incident
at, 252 ; destroyed by the Sullivan
expedition, 281
Kanaghsaws, destroyed by the Sul-
livan expedition, 281
Kanawaholla, destroyed by the Sul-
livan expedition, 280
Kellogg, Martin, an interpreter, 64
Kelly, Barnabas, statement by, 212
Kendaia, destroyed by the Sullivan
expedition, 280
King, Rufus, 367
King, Thomas, 81
Kirkland, Samuel, missionary, 78 ;
influence of with Oneidas, 149, 154
Kleynties, , explores the Susque-
hanna, 32
Klipnockie, early colloquial name
for Oneonta, 335
Klock, Colonel , fears for the
fate of Tryon County, 221 ; or-
dered to defend Cherry Valley,
424
INDEX
240; his failure to arrive in time,
Klock, George, described as " an old
rogue," 161, 181
Knapp, , 127
Kortright, its early prosperity, 388
Lackawaxen, Brant's expedition
to, 215 ; attacked, 264 ; Brant's bat-
tle near, 267-268 ; the enemy at,
3°5
Lafayette, Marquis de, forts built
at the instance of, 206
Lansing, John, 115
La Salle, 14
Laurens, settled, 128
Laurens, Henry, 128
Leather Stocking, 104 ; his farewell
to Otsego Lake, 332, 361
Lebanon, Indian school at, 69 ; mis-
sionaries from, 76; work of the
school at, 82, 170 ; Brant's grati-
tude to, 324
Lee, General Charles, 365, 367
Leonard, Joseph, 354
LeQuoy, F. Z., 359
Levy, Hayman, a trader, 107
Lindesay, his Cherry Valley patent,
93 ; settles on the patent, 119
Litchfield, Conn., 340
Little Aaron, saves Mr. Dunlop at
Cherry Valley, 244
Little Beard's Town, destroyed by
the Sullivan expedition, 281
Little Falls, eleven men killed at,
305
Livingston, John, 114
Livingston, Peter V. B., lands of,
114, 348
Livingston, Philip, his lands, 93-94
Logan, the Indian orator, 18
Long, Captain , 231-232, 236
Louis Philippe, 370
Lounsbury, Professor T. R. , quoted,
338 ; his " Life of Fenimore Coop-
er," 358
Low, Cornelius, a New York mer-
chant, 106-107
Low, Nicholas, settles on Otsego
Lake, 125
Lull, Benjamin, 127
Machin, Captain Thomas, helps
make the West Point chain, 258 ;
goes against the Onondagas, 263
McAuley, Rev. William, 388
McDonald, , a Tory, 201 ; in-
vades Schoharie, 216
McGinnis, Robert, in, 131
McKean, Captain Robert, in the
French war, 67 ; invites Brant to
Cherry Valley, 212 , goes to Una-
dilla as a scout, 223 ; Brant in-
quires after, 247 ; marriage of,
244 ; killed, 304
McKee, Miss Annie, runs the gant-
let, 312
McKown, William, his adventure
with Brant, 209
McMaster, David, settles in Unadil-
la, 131 ; driven out, 174 ; goes to
Unadilla with Herkimer, 178 ; es-
capes massacre at Cherry Valley,
244 ; returns to Sidney, 335
McMaster, Professor John B., 381
McWhorter, Dr. , 130
Martin Brook, 353
Martin, Solomon, 353, 381, 395, 396
Maryland, early settlement of, 127 ;
settlers after the war, 344
Massachusetts, emigration from to
the frontier, 338
Mathews, Mayor David, 109
Mayall, Joseph, settles in Laurens,
128
Maynard, Lieutenant-Colonel Jon-
athan, his life saved by Brant, 248 ;
killed at Cobleskill, 208
Megapolensis, Dominie .among
the Mohawks, 46
Meredith, 377, 385
Metcalf, Simon, surveyor, 101
Middleburgh, Palatines settle, 36 ;
Sir John Johnson invades, 297
Middlefield, settled, 126 ; inhabitants
of retire to Cherry Valley, 209 ;
settlers return to, 234
Middleton, Peter, his patent, 104,
108
Milet, Rev. Peter, missionary among
the Oneidas, 43
Miller, John, 357
Miln, Rev. John, missionary, 50
Minisink, invaded from Oghwaga,
214 ; route through to the Susque-
hanna, 218 ; Brant invades, 237 ;
battle of, 265-269 ; Brant's account
of the battle, 267 ; prisoners taken
at, 289 ; the enemy at, 302
Mitchell, Dr. Henry, 394
Mohawks, home of, 32 ; murder of
Father Jogues, 45 ; Megapolensis
visits, 46 ; Dr. Dellius among, 47 ;
Bernardus Freeman labors among,
48 ; T. Moor's labors, 48 ; William
Andrews's, 48; John Miln's, 50;
at school in Stockbridge, 56-57 ;
act as teachers, 77 ; consumption
among, 83 ; and Sir William John-
425
INDEX
son, 96 ; village lands of, 101 ;
King of, 158; Colonel Guy John-
son's conference with, 149 ; re-
move to Canada, 151 ; land griev-
ances of, 161 ; go to Oghwaga,
166 ; at Unadilla to meet Her-
kimer, 178-184 ; confined to one
place, 180; not hostile to Penn,
216 ; number of in the war, 310 ;
lands of on Grand River, 319 ;
Brant translates the Gospel of
Mark into tongue of, 323
Mohawk Valley, traders in, 3 ; pat-
ents in, 92-93 ; population before
the Revolution, 117; state of in
1757, 124 ; invaded by Brant, 172 ;
disaster enters, 223 ; main war
scenes shifted to, 287; Sir John
Johnson invades, 291 ; Butler and
Brant invade, 292 ; Sir John's sec-
ond invasion of, 298-300 ; Willett in
command in, 301 ; Major Ross in-
vades, 305 ; threatened with in-
vasion, 309 ; return to, of the set-
tlers, 331-336 ; Hugh White arrives
in, 339 ; confiscation of Indian
lands in, 337 ; William Cooper in,
357; granaries in exhausted, 363;
railways in, 391
Mohicans, village of, 143
Monmouth, battle of, 203
Montcalm, Marquis de, dismantles
Oswego, 187
Montour, Captain Andrew, destroys
Indian town, 75
Montreal, original home of Iroquois
near, 13
Moor, Rev. T., missionary, 48
Moore, Mrs. , a prisoner at
Cherry Valley, 250
Moore, Colonel John, settles on the
Susquehanna, 334.
Moore, Jonathan, 342
Morgan, Lewis H., his " League of
the Iroquois," 12 ; quoted, 43
Morris, churches of, 373
Morris, Gouverneur, 370
Morris, General Jacob, pioneer on
Butternut Creek, 365-368, 3 8 °
Morris, Lewis, 366
Morris, Staats Long, his patent, 104,
366 ; visits the patent, 127 ; his
route, 138, 379
Morrisania, 366
Mosley, Rev. Eleazer, missionary,
80, 144
Mosley, Rev. Elisha, 373
Moses, an Indian, 160
Mount Moses, 24
Mount Vision, 357
Mum ford, George, settles at mouth
of Cherry Valley Creek, 342
Munro, Henry, missionary, 51
Murphy, Timothy, his prowess in
war, 232-233 ; with the Sullivan
expedition, 287
Musson, William, 368
Napoleon Bonaparte, 359, 372
Nash, Rev. Daniel, his work as a
founder of churches, 374-378
Newbury, Sergeant, hanged as a
spy, 258
Newell, Nathan, 343
New England, pioneers from, on the
frontier, 337-346
New Milford, 374
Newtown, Indians to make a stand
at, 265 ; fortifications at, 278 ;
battle of, 279-280
Noble, Curtis, 343, 354, 389, 397
Northumberland, Duke of, his
relations to Brant, 320 ; friendship
for Brant, 325-326
Oaks Creek, 125
O'Bail, John, son of the Corn
Planter, 299
Occum, Samson, educated Indian,
69 ; letter of, to the Iroquois, 155
Oel, Rev. John J., missionary, 51
Ogden, family of, in Otego, 130;
driven out by Brant, 175 ; escape
massacre at Cherry Valley, 244 ;
Gen. Clinton camps on the farm
of, 273, 275 ; return to Otego,
335 ; Daniel, 351
Oghwaga, chief town on the upper
Susquehanna, 27 ; forms of the
word, 27 ; Indians of. 28; young
men sent to, 38 ; Elihu Spencer
at, 53; Gideon Hawley at, 57, 60;
fort built at, 65 ; Indians of, 67 ;
hostile Indians at, 73 ; Sir John
Johnson's expedition to, 75 ; Ralph
Wheelock at, 79 ; Eleazer Moseley
at, 80 ; Aaron Crosby at, 81 ; Smith
and Wells at, 144 ; Mohawk head-
quarters, 166; Col. Harper at,
170 ; message from to Gen. Her-
kimer, 178 ; warriors at, 181 ;
Indians at, after Oriskany, 195 ;
Delaware settlements invaded
from, 201 ; Brant returns to, 207;
Minisink invaded from, 214 ;
Butler returns to, from Wyoming,
219 ; Gov. Clinton advises de-
struction of, 233 ; Col. William
Butler destroys, 237; Brant at,
waiting for Gen. Clinton, 265 ;
26
INDEX
Minisink invaded from, 265 ; Gen.
Clinton at, 276 ; prisoners at, 289 ;
settled from New England, 343
Oghwaga Hill, 276
Ogilvy, Rev. John, missionary, 51
Old England District, 127 ; Brant
in, 214
Onawatoge, Brant destroys, 279
Oneidas, lands of, 16-17 ; mission-
aries to, 49; at Oghwaga, 69; school
among, 77 ; in Wisconsin, 83 ;
loyal to Americans, 154 ; oppose a
war measure, 184 ; invade Edmes-
ton, 226-227 ; Brant tries to win
over, 263 ; one of them kills
Walter Butler, 307 ; numbers of
them in the war, 310 ; confirmed
in possession of their lands, 319 ;
on the Susquehanna after the war,
332 ; lands New York bought
from, 342
Oneonta, Indian relics burned at,
23 ; main street of, 29 ; settled,
129 ; settlers return to, 334; first
church at, 373, 381 ; turnpike to,
388 ; prosperity of, 387
Oneonta Creek, store-house on, 142;
Brant visits, 143
Onondaga, the Iroquois capital, 15 ;
French intrigue at, 35 ; Col. Van
Schaick's expedition to, 263 ;
sentiment divided at, 318
Onondagas, drawn into war, 184 ;
expedition against, 363
Oothout Voleert, his patent, 94
Oriskany, patent of, 93 ; battle of,
152, 188-192 ; meaning of, to fron-
tier, 194 ; Indian revenge for
losses at, 205, 315 ; monument at,
facing 196
Otego, the patent, 105 ; surveyed,
127, 141 ; Gen. Clinton at, 174 ;
Ransom Hunt settles in, 342
Otego Creek, village at mouth of, 24,
60; Sir William Johnson's " dream-
land tract " not at, 97 ; Smith and
Wells at, 143 ; Gen. Clinton at,
275
Otsdawa Creek, settled, 128
Otsego Lake, other names for, 21-22,
32 ; on an early map, 33 ; trans-
portation by way of, 38 ; mission-
aries at, 76 ; George Croghan at,
103; settlement at, 125-126; roads to
and from, 139, 224, 379 ; Clinton
at, 255-262 ; Col. Alden's regiment
ordered to, 259 ; road to, from the
Mohawk, 259 ; adventure of David
Elerson near, 260; Anthony Duna-
avan shot at, 262 ; Gen. Clinton
starts from, 271 ; Washington
visits, 333 ; settled from Connecti-
cut, 342-343 ; William Cooper
arrives at, 357 ; Gen. Jacob Morris
at, 365 ; canal from, 390, 399
Otsego County, rapidity of its
early settlement, 125, 346 ; first
Judge of, 359; William Cooper's
work in settling, 360-364 ; famine
in, 363 ; political wars of, 367 ; its
early population, 389 ; slaves in,
397
Otsego Hall, 357, 362
Otseningo, destroyed by Gen. Clin-
ton, 276
Ouaquaga, 276
Ouleout, settled, 135 ; Col. William
Butler goes down, 234 ; Indian
huts on, 236 ; settled after the war,
341 ; mouth of, 347 ; road from,
to Geneva, 380 ; settlers on,
384
Owego, meaning of the word, 101;
line of property at, 103; destroyed
by Gen. Clinton, 276 ; first settlers
of, 355
Oxford, 387
Page, Sherman, 354, 399
Paine, Edward, 380
Painted Post, Indian forces collected
at, 296
Palatine, settlement near, invaded,
288
Palatines, the German, in Schoharie
and the Mohawk, 35 ; descend
the Susquehanna, 37 ; their New
York settlements, 38, 116 ; patriot-
ism of, 148 ; supplanted by New
Englanders, 337
Pallas, an Indian, 59, 60
Palmer's Island, 19
Parkman, Francis, 14, 40, 44
Patchin, Freegift, taken to Niagara
as a prisoner, 289
Patrick, Capt. , killed at Cobles-
kill, 208
Peck, Judge Jededjah, 344, 398
Pennamite wars, 218
Penn, William, seeks to gain the
Susquehanna, 34, 88 ; revenge on
Governor Dongan, 91
Petrie, John J., his lands, 94
Phelan Place, in Cherry Valley,
241
Pontiac, conspiracy of, 72, 73
Pouchot, M., describes the Susque-
hanna, 39
Preston, Amos, 343
Prevost, Captain Augustin, 126
427
INDEX
QUACKENBUSH, ADAM, 335
Quackyac, commands the Indians at
Torlock, 304
Quebec, fall of, 69, 87
Rac-Soutagh, an Indian, 158
Renonard, Andrew, 127, 359
Rice, Rev. Asaph, at Oghwaga, 69
Richfield, the Schuyler patent at, 94;
first settled, 124 ; Indians at, 224 ;
Levi Beardsley settles in, 343
Ridgway, William, 127, 143
Rivington, James, 108
Roberts, Ellis H., 14
Rogers, Perry P., 336; his reminis-
cences, 393
Rogers, Samuel, 342
Roosevelt, Theodore. 8
Root, Erastus, 342, 396
Rose, Colonel William, 343, 354
Ross, Betsy, makes the first flag,
188
Ross, Major , invades the Mo-
hawk, 305 ; driven back to the
wilderness, 306
St. Legkr, General Barry, his
campaign, 185 ; organizes his force
at Oswego, 187 ; invests Fort
Schuyler, 188 ; renews the siege,
193 : his sudden flight, 194 ; on
Lake Champlain, 300
Saga Yean Qua Resh, Tow, king of
the Mohawks, 158
Sand Hill Creek, 24
Sands, Judge Obadiah, 397
Sands, Frederick A.. 397
Sau. Rau Roh Wah, Indian chief,
his death, 25
Sawyer, , kills two Indians, 263 ;
"Scalp Story," 313
Schenectady, missionaries at, 47 ;
settlement of and burning of, 92 ;
settlers coming into, 210, 264 ; to
be destroyed, 300
Schenevus Creek, 23 ; settlement at
mouth of, 122 ; Indians captured
on, 171
Schoharie, meaning of the word, 31
Palatines in, 36 ; complaints from
201 ; half in ruins, 202 ; invaded
216 ; troops wanted at, 221 ; Col
onel William Butler arrives in
230 ; after the Susquehanna expe
dition, 236; prisoners taken in
264; main war scenes shifted to
287 ; prisoners taken at, 292 ; Sir
John Johnson desolates, 297; alarm
in, 308 ; land values in, 395
Schuyler, David ; his patent, 94
Schuyler's Lake. See Canadurango
Lake
Schuyler, Mayor Peter, in London
with Iroquois chiefs, 35, 50, 158
Schuyler, General Philip, convenes
conference with Indians, 151 ; con-
fers with Herkimer, 177 ; endorses
warnings from frontier, 204
Schwartz, , 335
Scotch Highlanders, on the Mo-
hawk, 116
Scotch-Irish, on the Susquehanna,
116 ; their influence in America,
118, 119; in Unadilla, 130 ; on the
Ouleout, 135; in Sidney, 133;
their patriotism, 148 ; in Connect-
icut, 341 ; supplanted by New
Englanders, 337 ; start migration
to Wattles's ferry, 348
Scramling, family of, settles in One-
onta, 129 ; Henry goes to Unadilla
with Herkimer, 178 ; returns to
Oneonta, 334 ; David and George
settle in Oneonta, 334
Sears, Captain Isaac, 108
Senecas, lands of, 30, 32 ; peaceful
times among, 152 ; drawn into the
war, 184 ; at the Oswego confer-
ence, 186; beaten at Oriskany,
188-192 ; fail to attend the Johns-
town council, 205 ; join Brant, 215 ;
at Wyoming, 218 ; why they went
to Cherry Valley, 238 ; barbarities
of, 247 ; invade Sleeper's Mills, 250
Sergeant, Rev. John, his death, 56,
340
Service, Captain , a Tory, 212 ;
killed, 231-232
Seymour, Horatio, his views of Or-
iskany, 194
Sharon Centre. See Torlock
Shaw, Joseph, 355, 368
Shawhiangto, destroyed by General
Clinton, 276
Shays's rebellion, 339
Shemanwaga, destroyed by the Sul-
livan expedition, 281
Shirley, General William, enlarges
Fort Oswego, 187
Sidney, ancient fort at, 25 ; Indian
giant who lived there, 25 ; the
knoll at, 26 ; the settlement found-
ed, 58 ; lands sold at, m ; Rev.
William Johnston settles, 133-134 ;
settlement broken up by Brant,
173-175 ; meeting of Herkimer
and Brant at, 178-183 ; General
Clinton at, 273 ; return of the
Johnstons to, 335 ; Israel Smith
settles in, 342 ; church at, 377
428
INDEX
Simms, J. R., his " History of Scho-
harie County," 18
Six Nations, the. See Iroquois
Skenando, an Oneida chief, friend of
the Americans, 154
Skillings, , his skeleton found
near Unadilla, 352
Skoiyase, destroyed by the Sullivan
expedition, 2S1
Sleeper, Joseph, settles on the Otego
patent, 128, 142 ; his home invaded
by the Senecas, 250, 398
Sliter, family of, settle in Unadilla,
134 ; driven out by Brant, 173-175
Smith, Rev. C. J., missionary, 70
Smith, Captain John, 14, 17
Smith Hall, 129, 359
Smith, Israel, settles in Sidney, 342
Smith, Richard. 128, 139, 358
Smith and Wells, settle the Otego
patent, 117; journal of their tour,
„ 138-143
Snyder, Captain , describes
Brant, 166
Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, 48, 52
Spencer, Amos, settles in Maryland,
344
Spencer, Rev. Elihu, missionary to
Oghwaga, 53. 340
Spencer, Jonathan, 336
Spencer, Orange, 336
Spencer, Thomas, half-breed orator,
148 ; brings news of St. Leger's
coming, 189; killed at Oriskany,
192
Springfield, settled, 126 ; inhabitants
retire to Cherry Valley, 209; de-
stroyed by Brant, 211 ; General
Clinton's stores taken to, 259 ; set-
tlers in, 344
Stacy, Colonel , hardships suf-
fered by as a prisoner, 350
Stark, General John, wins the battle
of Bennington, 189 ; commands at
Albany, 209 ; opposes offensive
operations, 230 ; his instructions
from General Gates, 255 ; his re-
sponsibility for frontier disasters,
256 ; weakens Colonel Willett, 308
Stars and Stripes, the, a rude copy
made at Fort Schuyler, 188
Stewart, General , associated
with Brant, 320
Stiles, Job, messenger from Sullivan
to Clinton, 269
Stockbridge, Indian school at, 52,
56.57
Stone Arabia, two persons killed in,
264 ; battle of, 298
Stone, Colonel W. L., his " Life of
Brant," 5, 157 ; sketch of, 74 ; de-
scribes battle of Oriskany, 190-
192; Brant at Minisink, 268;
quoted, passim
Stuart, Rev. John, missionary, Brant
assists in translations, 160 ; sketch
of, 180
Sturges, Judge Hezekiah, 343
Sullivan, General John, his expe-
dition, 220 ; Congress orders it,
257 ; Clinton's brigade at Otsego
Lake, 255-262; the enemy sent
against, 265; sends a detachment
to meet Clinton, 276 ; short of sup-
plies, 277 ; starts from Tioga Point,
278 ; battle of Newtown, 279 ;
towns he laid waste, 280-282 ; fu-
tility of his work, 214
Summit Lake, Sir John Johnson's
expedition camps on, 297 ; battle
at, 305
Susquehanna, historic interest of, 3 ;
fur traders on, 8, 34 ; fort on, pro-
posed, 35 ; Captain John Smith
at mouth of, 17 ; meaning of the
name, 18 ; Iroquois name for, 19 ;
Indian population of, 21 ; villages
on, 21 ; trails on, 29-31 ; first white
men on, 32 ; William Penn's in-
terest in, 24 ; Colden's report on,
38 ; Sir William Johnson's interest
in, 39 ; missionary field on, 72 ;
expedition to, 74 ; Penn seeks to
purchase, 88 ; conveyance of, to
the English, 89-90 ; early patents
on, 93-96 ; Wallace patent on,
106; Scotch-Irish settle on, 116-
118; road to from Catskill, 138;
road down from Otsego Lake,
139 ; Brant and the Mohawks ar-
rive on, 166 ; Herkimer descends,
178 ; settlements on destroyed,
202; Indians about to "strike"
on, 205 ; Brant collecting Tories
on, 207 ; view of confluence of, with
the Unadilla, facing 102 ; Clin-
ton's descent of, 272-277 ; flood in,
at opening of dam at Otsego Lake,
271-272 ; a highway for invaders,
287; desolation on, 311, 331; re-
turn of settlers to, 332-336, 342-
346, 348-353; Talleyrand's visit,
368-371 ; tour of, by Dr. Burhans,
374 ; churches founded on, 373-
378; Bishop Philander Chase's
visit, 375 ; Robert S. Witmore on,
375 ; turnpikes to, 379-391 ; pro-
posed canal on, 390 ; isolation of
settlements on, 392
429
INDEX
Susquehanna Flats, 26. See also
Sidney, Johnston Settlement and
Unadilla, Old Town
Susquehanna Indians, meet Captain
John Smith, 17 ; remains of, 19
Talleyrand, Brant meets, 323 ;
visits the Susquehanna Valley,
368-371
Teedyuscung, a Delaware chief, 74
Tee Yee Ho Ga Row, Emperor of
the Iroquois in 1710, portrait of,
facing 158
Thurston, Increase, 127
Tioga County, 355
Tioga Point, meeting place of trails,
30; Indians at, 57 ; Line of Prop-
erty at, 101 ; Colonel John Butler
starts from, for Wyoming, 215,
218 ; council at, in preparation for
Cherry Valley massacre, 240, 264 ;
prisoners at, 251 ; Clinton starts
lor, 271 ; men sent from, to meet
General Clinton, 276 ; the Sullivan
Expedition departs from, 278 ;
prisoners at, 289 ; Indian forces
collected at, 296 ; Louis Philippe
at, 370
Torlock, prisoners taken at, 264 ;
battle of, 304 ; cattle captured at,
3°5
Towanoedalough, a Mohawk town,
23, 59
Towyjaronsere, John, Brant laments
his death, 278
Tribes Hill, plundered by Sir John
Johnson, 291
Trowbridge, Captain , 355
Tryon County, events in, 5 ; Camp-
bell's "Annals " of, 21 ; corner of,
24; territory of, 119; patriots in,
148 ; militia of, under Herkimer,
177, 189 ; pays the penalty of Ind-
ian losses at Oriskany, 195 ; dan-
ger in, 221, 228; its most opulent
parts destroyed, 294 ; Tories weak-
ening in, 295 ; decline in militia of,
303 ; losses in, 312, 313
Tunnicliffe, John, settles in Rich-
field, 123 ; the enemy at his house,
2ii, 224; returns to Richfield,
244
Tuscaroras, lands of, in New York,
1 7< 3 IQ ; lands New York bought
of, 342
Ulster, invaded by Brant, 289;
enemy lurking in, 308
Unadilla, old town, Indian lands in,
16; Indian monument near, 24;
territory originally embraced in,
26 ; meaning of the word, 26 ; Gid-
eon Hawley at, 60; settled by
Scotch-Irish, 130, 131 ; village of
Mohicans near, 143 ; settlers at,
retire to Cherry Valley, 166 ; Brant
disperses the settlement in, 173-
175 ; Tories at, with Brant, 176 ;
Herkimer meets Brant at, 178-184 ;
in the hands of Tories, 182 ; force
Brant had at, 192 ; no patriots left
in, 202 ; preparations at, to attack
Cherry Valley, 204; Brant's return
to, 206 ; a resort of Tories and ne-
groes, 209 ; Colonel Butler expect-
ed at, 211 ; size of the force at,
214 ; attack on expected, 215 ; re-
turn of the enemy to, after Wy-
oming, 220 ; scout goes to, 224 ;
prisoners taken at, 225 ; Governor
Clinton advises sending militia to,
229-230; size of enemy at, 231,
234 ; Timothy Murphy at, 233 ;
Colonel William Butler destroys,
234-236 ; General Clinton at, 273-
2 75 1 prisoners taken to, 292 ;
an invading force marches to,
296
Unadilla, township of, 374, 381 ; rec-
ords of, 397
Unadilla, village of, St. Matthew's
Church farm, 114 ; the Binne-
kill at, 335 ; settled from Connect-
icut, 342 ; ironware found buried
at, 352 ; founders of, 353 ; St. Mat-
thew's Church founded, 376 ; Dr.
Timothy D wight visits, 385, 386,
387 ; an inland river port, 387 ;
reminiscences of, 413
Unadilla Forks, settled, 123
Unadilla River, part of Fort Stan-
wix line, 3, 101, 103 ; Oneida terri-
tory, 116; confluence of, with Sus-
quehanna, 15 ; mouth of, resort of
hunters, 25 ; view of, facing 102 ;
settlement of, 122 ; men killed on,
225 ; Brant retreats down, 226-
227 ; General Jacob Morris at
mouth of, 365 ; Robert S. Wetmore
on > 375 ! Dr. Timothy Dwight vis-
its, 387 ; land values in, 395
Union, meeting at, between Clinton
and Sullivan's men, 276
Upton, Clotworthy, his patent, 104
Utsyantha Lake, battle at, 306
Van Derwerker, Captain John,
settles in Oneonta, 129 ; returns to
Oneonta, 334
Van Hovenburg, Lieutenant, 273
43°
INDEX
Van Rensselaer, General Robert, at
the battle of Klock's Field, 298 ;
findings of Court of Inquiry about,
297
Van Schaick, Colonel , goes to
Cherry Valley, 177 ; expedition
against the Onondagas, 263
Van Valkenberg, Joachim, settles at
mouth of Schenevus Creek, 121,
141-142 ; General Clinton at his
farm, 273-274; killed, 306
Van Vechten, Abraham, 114
Vissher, Colonel, his home invaded,
291
Vermont sufferers settle in the Sus-
quehanna Valley, 341
Visscher, , map by, 32
Vrooman, , Brant's ineffective
help of, to escape, 251
Waddell, R. R., io3
Wagner, Joseph, 183
Wallace, Alexander, the patent
called his, 106-115; a Tory, 109;
attainted, no
Wallace, Hugh, a New York mer-
chant, 106 ; a Tory, 109 ; attainted,
no
Walling, Simeon, 335
Warner, George, made a prisoner,
305
Warren, Captain Benjamin, de-
scribes Colonel Alden's arrival at
Cherry Valley, 223 ; his diary, 239.
242
Warren's Bush, invaded by Major
Ross, 305
Warren, Sir Peter, aids Stockbridge
School, 56
Washington, George, letter to the
Iroquois, 155 ; his early battles,
176 ; his campaigns defensive
ones, 196 ; in the Highlands, 203 ;
directs Sullivan's Expedition, 257 ;
as to General Clinton's supplies,
277 ; his instruction to Sullivan to
be severe, 282 ; intervention of, in
behalf of the Iroquois, 319 ; visits
Cherry Valley and Otsego Lake,
333
Wasson, Catherine, 238
Wattles's Ferry, 135 ; Nathaniel
Wattles establishes, 347, 353 ;
terminus of Catskill Turnpike,
379 ; Dr. Timothv Dwight at,
384
Wattles, Nathaniel. 341, 380, 397
Wattles, Sluman, as a boy in Leba-
non, 341, 347; settles in Frank-
lin, 348 ; work on the Catskill
Turnpike, 380 ; his account book,
397, 398
Wauteghe, Indian town, 60. See
Otego
Wavonwanorem, Adam, 77
Wawarsing, burned, 305
Weiser, Conrad, the elder, .leader of
the Palatines, 36
Weiser, Conrad, the younger, 37 ;
conversation with an Onandaga
chief, 39 ; at Onondaga, 56
Weller, David, 343
Wells, Jane, killed at Cherry
Valley, 241 ; story of her cap,
252
Wells, Captain John, builds fort at
Oghwaga, 65 ; killed with his fam-
ily at Cherry Valley, 241
Wells, John, escapes massacre at
Cherry Valley ; anecdote of, 323
Wetmore, Robert G., 375
Wempel, Abraham, 208
West Canada Creek, Willett's pur-
suit of Major Ross on, 306
Wheelock, Rev. Dr. Eleazer, his
school at Lebanon, 69, 340
Wheelock, James, 323
Wheelock, Ralph, anecdote of, 79
White, Hugh, pioneer in the Mo-
hawk Valley, 339
White, James, 355
White, Dr. Joseph, of Cherry Valley.
342
Whiting, Major Daniel, takes pris-
oners on the Butternut Creek,
227; at Cherry Valley, 241, 2^2;
ordered to Otsego Lake, 259
Whitney's Point, 355
Willett, Colonel Marinus, second in
command at Fort Schuyler, 188 ;
leads sortie at Fort Schuyler. 193 ;
wanted again, but not available,
230; portrait of, facing 301 ; ar-
rives in the Mohawk Valley, 301 ;
at the battle of Torlock. 304 ;
drives the enemy into the wilder-
ness, 305-307 ; attempts to capture
Fort Oswego, 309
Wilmot, William, 342
Wilson, Peter, a Cayuga chief,
speech of, 331
Windsor. See Oghwaga
Winedecker, George, a trader, 59
Wisner, John, enlists men on the
Susquehanna, 167
Woodbridge, Timothy, missionary
at Stockbridge, 52, 56 ; goes to
Oghwaga, 57 ; returns to Albany,
61
Woodruff, Henry S., 389
43 1
INDEX
Woolley, Joseph, missionary, 77
Worcester, Mass., destruction of
Presbyterian Church at, 132 ; men
from settle on the Unadilla, 134
Wormwood, Lieutenant Matthew,
killed at Cherry Valley, 208
Wyalusing, 35, 65, 88
Wyoming, Dr. Wheelock's interest
in, 71 ; families enter by the Sus-
quehanna route, 142 ; motives for
the massacre of, 197 ; attack on,
planned early, 205 ; Colonel But-
ler to attack, 215 ; settled from
Connecticut, 217 ; the massacre of,
218-220 ; relation of the massacre
at, to the Cherry Valley massacre,
238
Yager, W. E., 23
Young, David and John, 213, 334
432
'
